EWORLD 
ON FIRE 



OR 






) 'J ^ ^ 



mo 




r^ 



V ^. 



I'yif.ii^Aili/V." 



^.^,^^ft|^i^; 



:ii^* 



,n 



i 



l*-**^ 







PRICE $1.00 



Copjnrightecl 1915 by American Printing Co., Birmin 



f 



^ 



THE WORLD ON FIRE 



OR 



ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO 



BY AN 

AMERICAN ANGLO-SAXON 



Do"not withhold either brick-bats or bouquets. Throw them 
to Professor J. Ern^ Wunnenberg, Trustee, Birming- 
ham, Alabama, and they will be promptly 
delivered to the Author 




PRINTED BY 

AMERICAN PRINTING COMPANY 

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA 



11523 

.V\J7 



THE WORLD ON FIRE; OR ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO. 

A BOOK 



Composed of an original poem (Chapter VII) sandwiched between carefully- 
selected arrays of illuminating data. 



; 



A high authority terms this poem, (Chapter VII) : 

"Certainly the most ambitious literary effort made since the beginning of 
the conflict." 

Another: 

"A powerful dramatic expose of England's awful infamy." 

Another: 

"This remarkable poem, completed the second month of the war, exhibits an 
acumen almost uncanny, amounting to intuition." 

Another: 

"It's faults are mostly negligible, being largely confined to mere crudities of 
technique — due, no doubt, to rapid composition, or, more likely, a lofty disdain 
for mere punctilioes of technique. It is tremendously bold, and breathes through- 
out a fierce and splendid sincerity." 

And another: 

"The product of a master mind; a fine combination of lofty poetry and lofty 
philosophy as well. Its quaint narrative is an incessant rifle crackle of interesting 
historical fact, framed in fine imagery, relieved all through, with terrific 42- 
centimeter booms. The author has the advantage of a very great theme and he 
has measured up to it. The general result is an epic that will live." 



y 



MAR 26 1915 

CI,.AJi98266 






: CHAPTER I. 

HEART CRIES AND SOUL CRIES 

Honest reader, hats off, and whispers here! We stand on holy ground. 
Listen : 

TO THE CIVILIZED WORLD! 

As representatives of German Science and Art, we herehij protest to the civil- 
ized world, against the lies and calumnies with which our enemies are endeavor- 
ing to stain the honor of Germany in her hard struggle for existence — in a struggle 
which has been forced upon her. 

The iron mouth of events has proved the untruth of the fictitious German 
defeats, consequently misrepresentation and calumny are all the more eagerly 
at work. As heralds of truth we ra'se our voices against these. 

It is not true that Germany is guilty of having caused this war. Neither the 
people, the government, nor the ''Kaiser" wanted war. Germany did her utmost 
to prevent it; for this assertion the world has documental proof. Often enough 
during the 26 years of his reign has Wilhelm II shown himself to be the upholder 
of peace, and often enough has this fact been acknowledged by our opponents. 
Nay, even the ''Kaiser" they dare call an Attila has been ridiculed by them 
for years, because of his steadfast endeavors to maintain universal peace. Not 
till a numerical superiority which had been lying in wait on the frontiers, assailed 
us, did the whole nation rise to a man. 

It is not true that we trespassed in neutral Belgium. It has been proved that 
France and England had resolved on such a trespass, and it has likewise been 
proved that Belgium had agreed upon their doing so. It would have been suicide 
on our part not to have been beforehand. 

It is not true that the life and property of a single Belgian citizen was injured 
by our soldiers without the bitterest self-defense having made it necessary; for, 
again and again, notwithstanding repeated threats, the citizens lay in ambush, 
shooting at the troops out of the houses, mutilating the wounded, and murdering 
in cold blood the medical men while they were doing their Samaritan work. 
There can be no baser abuse than the suppression of these crimes with the view 
of letting the Germans appear to be criminals, only for having justly punished 
these assassins for their wicked deeds. 

It is not true that our troops treated Louvain brutally. Furious inhabitants 
having treacherously fallen upon them in their quarters, our troops with aching 
hearts, were obliged to fire a part of the town, as a punishment. The greatest 
part of Louvain has been preserved. The famous Town Hall stands quite intact; 
for at great sacrifice our soldiers saved it from destruction by the flames. 
Every German would of course, greatly regret if in the course of this terrible 
war any works of art should already have been destroyed or be destroyed at some 
future time, but inasmuch as in our love for art we cannot be surpassed by any 
other nation, in the same degree we must decidedly refuse to buy a German defeat 
at the cost of saving a work of art. 

It is not true that our warfare pays no respect to international laws. It knows 
no undisciplined cruelty. But in the East the earth is saturated with the blood 
of women and children unmercifully butchered by the wild Bussian troops; and 
in the west, Dum-Dum-Bullets mutilate the breasts of our soldiers. Those who 
have allied themselves with Bussians and Servians, and present such a shameful 
scene to the world as that of inciting Mongolians and Negroes against the white 
race, have no right whatever to call themselves upholders of civilization. 

The combat against our so-called militarism is a combat against our civiliza- 
tion, and is not as our enemies hypocritically pretend it is. Were it not for 
German militarism, German civilization would long since have been extirpated. 
For its protection it arose in a land which for centuries had been plagued by 



6 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



bands of robbers as no other land had been. The German army and the German 
people are one, and today this consciousness fraternizes seventy millions of 
Germans, — all ranks, positions, and parties being one. 

We cannot wrest the poisonous weapon — the lie — out of the hands of our 
enemies. All we can do is to proclaim to all the world that our enemies are 
giving false witness against us. You who know us, who, with us have protected 
the most holy possessions of man, we call to you: 

Have faith in us! Believe that we shall carry on this war to the end and as a 
civilized nation, to whom the legacy of a Goethe, a Beethoven and a Kant, is just 
as sacred as its own hearths and homes. 

For this we pledge you our names and our honor: 



.s 



ADOLF von BAEYER, 

Prof, of Chemistry, Munich. 
WILHELM von BODE, 

General Director of the Royal 
Museums, Berlin. 
ALOIS BRANDL, 

Professor, President of the 
Shakespeare Society, Berlin. 
PROF. J. BRINKMANN, 

Museum Director, Hamburg. 
PROF. PETER BEHRENS, 

Berlin. 
EMID von BEHRING, 

Professor of Medicine, Marburg. 
LUJU BRENTANO, 

Professor of National Economy, 
Munich. 
JOHANNES CONRAD, 

Professor of National Economy, 
Halle. 
FRANZ von DEFREGGER, 

Munich. 
ADOLF DEISSMANN, 

Professor of Theology, Berlin. 
FRIEDRICH von DUHN, 

Professor of Archaeology, 
Heidelburg. 
ALBERT EHRHARD, 

Professor of R. Catholic The- 
ology, Strassburg. 
PROF. PAUL EHRLICH, 

Frankfor-on-the-Main. 
GERHARD ESSER, 

Professor of R. Catholic The- 
ology, Bonn. 
HERBERT EULENBERG, 

Kaiserswerth. 
EMIL FISCHER, 

Professor of Chemistry, Berlin. 
LUDWIG FULDA, 

Berlin. 
J. J. de GROOT, 

Professor of Ethnography, Berlin. 
ERNST HAECKEL, 

Professor of Zoology, Jena. 
PROF. A. von HARNACK, 

General Director of the Royal 
Library, Berlin. 
KARL HAUPTMANN, 

Schreiberhau. 
WILHELM HERRMANN, 

Professor of Protestant Theology, 
Marburg. 
A. von HILDERBRAND, 

Munich. 



ENGBLBERT HUMPERDINCK, 
Berlin. 

RICHARD DEHMEL, 

Hamburg. 
PROF. WILLIAM DORPFELD, 

Berlin. 
KARL ENGLER, 

Professor of Chemistry, Karls- 
rhue. 
RUDOLPH EUCKEN, 

Professor of Philosophy, Jena, 
HEINRICH FINKE, 

Professor of History , Freiburg. 
WILHELM FOERSTER, 

Professor of Astronomy, Berlin. 
EDUARD von GEBHARDT, 

Dusseldorf. 
FRITZ HABER, 

Professor of Chemistry, Berlin. 
MAX HALBE, 

Munich. 
GERHART HAUPTMANN. 

Agnetendorf. 
GUSTAV HELLMAN, 

Professor of Meterology, Berlin. 
ANDREAS HEUSLER, 

Professor of Northern Philology, 
Berlin. 
LUDWIG HOFFMAN, 

City Architect, Berlin. 
LEOPOLD GRAF KALCKREUTH, 

President of the German Con- 
federation of Artists, Eddelsen. 
ARTHUR KAMPF, 

Berlin. 
THEDOR KIPP, 

Professor of Jurisprudence, 
Berlin. 
MAX KLINGER, 

Leipsic. 
ANTON KOCH, 

Professor of R. Catholic The- 
ology, Munster. 
KARL LAMPRECHT, 

Professor of History, Leipsic. 
MAXIMILIAN LENZ, 

Professor of History, Hamburg. 
FRANZ von LISZT, 

Professor of Jurisprudence, 
Berlin. 
JOSEF MAUSBACH, 

Professor of R. Catholic The- 
ology, Munster. 



'»^ 



^ 



HEART CRIES AND SOUL CRIES 



SEBASTIAN MERKLE, 

Professor of R. Catholic The- 
ology, Wurzburg. 
HEINRICH MORF, 

Professor of Roman Philology; 
Berlin. 
ALBERT NEISSER, 

Professor of Medicine, Breslau 
TVILHELM OSTWALD, 

Professor of Chemistry, Leipsic. 
MAX PLANCK, 

Professor of Physics, Berlin. 
■GEORG REICKE, 

Berlin. 
ALOIS RIEHL, 

Professor of Philosophy, Berlin. 
JFRITZ ANG. von KAULBACH, 

Munich. 
J^ELIX KLEIN, 

Professor of Mathematics, 
Goettingen. 
ALOIS KNOEPFLER, 

Professor of History of Art, 
Munich. 
PAUL LABAND, 

Professor of Jurisprudence, 
Strassburg. 
PHILIPP von LENARD, 

Professor of Physics, Heidelberir. 
MAX LIEBERMANN, 

Berlin. 
LUDWIG MANZEL, 

President of the Academy of 
Arts, Berlin. 
■GEORG von MAYR, 

Professor of Political Sciences, 
Munich. 
EDUARD MEYER, 

Professor of History, Berlin. 
FRIEDERICH NAUMANN, 

Berlin. 
WALTER NERNST, 

Professor of Physics, Berlin. 
BRUNO PAUL, 

Professor of School for Applied 
Arts, Berlin. 
ALBERT PLEHN, 

Professor of Medicine, Berlin. 
PROF. MAX REINHARDT, 

Director of German Theatre, 
Berlin. 
KARL ROBERT, 

Professor of Archaeology, Halle. 
WILHELM ROENTGEN, 

Professor of Physics, Munich. 



FRITZ SCHAPER, 

Berlin. 
AUGUST SCHMIDLIN, 

Professor of Sacred History, 
Munster. 
REINHOLD SEEBERG, 

Professor of Protestant Theology, 
Berlin. 
FRANZ von STUCK, 

Munich. 
HANS THOMA, 

Karlsruhe. 
KARL VOLMOLLER, 

Stuttgart. 
KARL VOSSLER, 

Professor of Roman Philology, 
Munich. 
WILHELM WALDEYER, 

Professor of Anatomy, Berlin. 
FELIX von WEINGARTNER, 
WILHELM WEIN, 

Professor of Physics, Wurzburg. 
RICHARD WILLSTATTER, 

Professor of Chemistry, Berlin. 
MAX RUBNER, 

Professor of Medicine, Berlin. 
ADOLF von SCHLATTER, 

Professor of Protestant Theology, 
Tuebingen. 
GUSTAV von SCHMOLLER, 

Professor of National Economy, 
Berlin. 
MARTIN SPAHN, 

Professor of History, Strassburff. 
HERMANN SUDERMANN, 

Berlin. 
WILHELM TRUBNER, 

Karlsruhe. 
RICHARD VOSS, 

Berchtesgaden. 
SIEGFRIED WAGNER, 

Bayreuth. 
AUGUST von WASSERMANN. 

Professor of Medicine, Berlin. 
THEODOR WIEGARD, 

Museum Director, Berlin. 
ULRICH von WILAMOWITZ- 

MOELLENDORFF, 
Professor of Philology, Berlin. 
WILHELM WINDELBAND, 

Professor of Philosophy, Heidel- 
berg. 
WILHELM WUNDT, 

Professor of Philosophy, LelpsIc. 



Do you grasp those names, honest reader? Those names mean something. 
They mean everything. Every one represents mental mass and spiritual momen- 
tum. They are not merely Intellectuals. They are God's highest Spirituals as 
well. Every word from them weighs a ton. 

This great IC-inch soul-scream which they have, (in their horrified despair at 
the ignorance and prejudice of the outside world — particularly America) sent out 
into spiritual space, will echo down the ages and ricochet through the farthest 
reaches of the future. 

It is an epochal outcry: without a precedent; or parallel; probably never to 
be duplicated. Frame it, honest reader. These men are brave men. They have 



8 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

the courage of martyrs. In matters of polity they have tackled the Kaiser him- 
self time after time. Theirs is the very courage of the Soul. 

Every name of them is an Immortal. Nothing but Immortal interests, inter- 
ests of scientific Truth and Immaculate Honor would call forth such a cry. Thesr 
are not names of Dilettantes, of Demagogues, of Applause Seekers, of mere Fic- 
tionists. They are not names of Time-servers or idlers. Each one has piled up 
monuments of creative work, colossal, stupendous, prodigious: Haeckel, Ostwald, 
Eucken, Roentgen, and the rest. 

Their signatures are not a mere idle symposium. When these souls sign 
their names they mean something. They have sought only God's pure truth all 
their lives. They couldn't lie if they wished. They couldn't wish it. To do so 
would be to change a Law of Nature. They were born honest and have communed 
with Nature and, hence, God who made it. They have look God straight in the 
face all their lives. They care not for riches, except the riches of God's revealed 
their names they mean something. They have sought only God's pure truth all 
truths. They have built their intellectual and spiritual observatories upon Earth's 
utmost peaks and have caught God's faintest signals to the obtuse world; and 
made their fellow men a precious present of them when their souls join in such 
a poignant chorus to their fellow men. 

0, don't forget who these spirits are and what they say. They don't use 
catch-phrases or loose sentences. Their words are so compact they should be 
read over and over again. They are accustomed to think and speak in the digested 
terms of universal Evolution. An individual, a group, a species, an order, a full 
Solar System, with them are but as an incident. Eternal Evolution is their prov- 
ince. They look on a mere stage, like the present, in the history of a mere planet 
like this, (with its only one and one-half billions of live human beings, preceded 
by ten thousand times as many billions more and — the last one now living to be 
gone in perhaps less than a century hence — to be succeeded by Ten Thousand 
times as many Billions more) — they look on it all simply as a passing pageant. 
They would never cry out from their souls in desperate chorus over a mere little 
war, unless that war meant something portentous — something that has to do with 
the highest interests of the human race, aye, with the very Eternal Evolution of 
the Universe itself. They are too big for prejudice or passion. They don't know 
the meaning of the terms. They are too big for partisanship. They don't know 
how to prefer one individual, or government, or even race above another except 
as it bears in itself the greatest potentiality for Evolution. 

But, enough. If you are both honest and intelligent, you must believe them. 
If you don't, you are past hope. You wouldn't believe "Though one rose from the 
dead." 



THE CLARION CRY OF TWO IMMORTALS 

Translated for The Fatherland by Prof. Henry C. Wood, of Johns Hopkins 

University 

The whole learned world of Germany is at the present time roused to feelings 
of deep anger and strong moral resentment at the conduct of England. We the 
undersigned, who have both of us been for many years connected with England 
through the bonds of science and by personal relationships, consider ourselves 
entitled to give public expression to this feeling of profound indignation. 

In close companionship with English scholars of congenial aims, we have 
zealously endeavored to bring the two great nations closer to each other in spirit 
and to promote a better mutual understanding; a fruitful interchange of English 
and German culture appeared to us not only desirable, but indispensable for the 
intellectual progress of humanity, which is at the present time confronted witli 
such stupendous tasks. We gratefully acknowledge the favorable reception which 
our endeavors have met with in England; great and noble qualities, native to the 
English race, manifested themselves to us and we were led to hope that these 
traits would get the better of and outgrow the dangers and disadvantages bound 
up in the English character. 

And now those qualities have succumbed to the ancient English malady, to a 



HEART CRIES AND SOUL CRIES 




Ernst Haeckel. 



Rudolf Eucken. 



brutal national egotism which, careless of morality or its opposite, pursues its 
own advantage. 

Examples of such a ruthless egotism are unfortunately all too common in 
English history; it may suffice to recall in passing the destruction of the Danish 
fleet (1807) and the theft of the Dutch colonies during the Napoleonic wars. But 
what is happening today surpasses every instance from the past; this last example 
will be permanently characterized in the annals of the world as the indelible 
shame of England. Great Britain is fighting for a Slavic, semi-Asiatic power 
against Teutonism; she is fighting not only in the ranks of barbarism, but also 
on the side of wrong and injustice; for let it not be forgotten that Russia began the 
war, because she refused to permit adequate expiation for a miserable assassina- 
tion; but the blame for extending the limits of the present conflict to the pro- 
portions of a world-war, through which the sum of human culture is threatened, 
rests upon England. 

And the reason for all this? Because England was envious of Germany's 
greatness, because she was bound to hinder further expansion of the German 
sphere at any cost! There cannot be the least doubt that England was determined 
from the start to break in upon Germany's great conflict for national existence, 
to cast as many stones as possible in Germany's path, and to block her every effort 
towards adequate expansion. England lay in wait, until the favorable moment 
for inflicting a lasting injury upon Germany should come, and promptly seized 
upon the unavoidable German invasion of Belgian territory as a pretext for drap- 
ing her own brutal national egotism in a mantle of decency. 

Or is there in the whole world a person so simple as to believe that England 
would have declared war upon France, had the latter power invaded Belgium? 
In that event, England would have shed hypocritical tears over the necessary vio- 
lation of international law, while concealing a laughing face behind the mask. 
The most repulsive thing in the whole business is this hypocritical Pharisaism; 
it merits only contempt. 

History shows that such sentiments as these, far from guiding nations up- 
wards, lead them along the downward path. But we of this present time have 
fixed our faith firm as a rock upon our righteous cause, and upon the superior 
power and the inflexible will for victorv that abide in the German nation. Never- 



10 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

theless, the deplorable fact remains, that the boundless egotism already mentioned 
has, for that span of the future discernible to us, destroyed the collaboration of the 
two nations which was so full of promise for the intellectual uplift of humanity. 
But the other party has willed it so. Upon England alone rests the monstrous 
guilt and the responsibility in the eye of world-history. 

Ernst Haeckel. 

Rudolf Eucken. 
Jena, August 18th, 1914. 



THE CRY OF THE MIGHTY THEOLOGIAN HARNACK 

To our civilization belong three things; or better, it rests upon three pillars. 
The one pillar is the acknowledgment of the infinite value of each human soul, 
hence, the appreciation of personality and individuality. These are honored, 
cultivated and demanded. This is the first pillar. The second is the acknowledg- 
ment of the duty to put ever and anon, at stake our own dear life for every great 
ideal, God, Liberty, and Fatherland. Just as high as we Americans and Germans 
value our life, even so do we sacrifice it with the same willingness and readiness 
when demanded by a just and high cause. The third pillar is the proper respect 
of right, and with it, the unhampered abilities for powerful organizing in every 
direction and in all communities. But now arises, opposed to this civilization 
resting on the three pillars, personality, duty to sacrifice everything for ideals, 
right and organization — there arises alongside of this civilization before my eyes 
another civilization, the civilization of hordes of patriarchal times, the civilization 
of a rabble, gathered together and held together by despots, the Byzantine hordes 
— I must be more general — the Mongol-Muscovite civilization. 

The civilization of these people was civililzation once, but that is long past. 
Their civilization could not bear the light of the eighteenth century, much less 
the light of the nineteenth; and now in the twentieth it breaks forth and threatens 
us — these unorganized hordes, these hordes of Asia intend to lay waste, like the 
sands of the desert, our flourishing fields. This we know and comprehend. This 
we now witness. This also the American people understand, for every one must 
know it who has attained the present high standard of civilization and who looks 
at the present with a scrutinizing eye; yes, they know that the watchword is, 
''Nations of Europe, guard your most sacred possessions!" 

Civilization Entrusted to Three Nations 

This our civilization, the sacred treasure of humanity, was entrusted to three 
nations chiefly, and practically to these three only: to us, the Americans, and 
— to the English! More I do not say. I cover my head in silence! Two are still 
on the scene and the more strongly must we be united as the glorious banner of 
humanity is in danger. Everything is at stake, even our intellectual existence; 
and the American people know only too well that this means also their existence. 
Our culture is on the same basis and we have the common duty to defend it. 

Germany's Pledge to the American People 

To you, American citizens, we give the solemn pledge that we shall sacrifice 
our possessions and our life's blood for the preservation of this our civilization. 
It is a solemn moment, awe-inspiring and glorious. Our experience of the past 
few days does not allow us any longer to view life as a biased or critical spectator; 
for we stand in the midst of life, — a higher life. God has unexpectedly called us 
forth from the misery of everyday life and elevated us to a height which we have 
never even dared think of. But everywhere where life shows itself, higher life or 
even life in its general sense — where life becomes a pleasure, there and then life 
is surrounded by death, as, in labor, when something new is begotten, when that 
which is most dear to us is to be maintained — death stands at life's threshold. We 
also know this, when life and death are thus closely knitted together, the highest 
life and bodily death, every fear of death ceases. In this mutual absorption there 
is to be found life only, as the body passes through the chambers of death. 
Through death is begotten life. An old song enters my mind, a powerful song of 



HEART CRIES AND SOUL CRIES 11 

victory written by our forefathers. It speaks of the Divine Master, with whom we 
die and in whom we are again reborn. Death, willingly embraced, overthrows 
"the great Death" and assures us of the "higher Life." Death liberates us. These 
are the words of Luther. 

The Value of the Higher Obedience 

In conclusion I shall only add this: In these solenm hours there is placed 
before our eyes a picture and under it are the simple words: "He was obedient 
unto death; yea, unto the death of the cross." This obedience, a great obedi- 
ence, is demanded of us now; an obedience for which our neighboring nations 
have derided and ridiculed us in former days. "Behold these are the obedient 
Germans I Men who obediently follow every order just as given." Now they 
will see that this obedience not only was and is good discipline, but also will 
power. They will understand that this great obedience is not trivial nor death, 
but energy and life. 

From the East — I repeat it once more — the sands of the desert are threaten- 
ing; from the West we are attacked by enemies of yore and by perfidious friends. 
Oh, when will the Germans be able to pray again and confess: 

God is the Orient 

God is the Occident, 

The north as well as southern lands 

All rest in peace within His hands. 

We only hope that God will give us strength to verify these words, not for 
ourselves, but for entire Europe. Till then, however, as all fountains of our higher 
life and of our existence are endangered, we exclaim: "Father, protect our homes 
and guard us from the attacks of the wild hordes." 



LUDWIG FULDA'S HEART-CRY TO AMERICANS. 

(Lion-hearted Ludwig Fulda, on more than one occasion has disagreed pub- 
licly with the Kaiser. He lost the Schiller Prize, one of Europe's greatest dis- 
tinctions, because he had fearlessly taken issue with William II.) 

Of course I know very well that public opinion over there has largely been 
misled by our opponents and is continually being misled. Did not the English at 
the very beginning of the war cut our cable, in order to be able to guillotine our 
honor without the least interference? For this reason I cannot blame the masses 
if they took for truth the absurd fables dished out to them, when no contradicting 
voice could reach them. 

Should the Germans, who, since they fought for and attained their national 
unity, have exclusively devoted themselves to works of peace and culture, sud- 
denly have been transformed into an adventurous, booty-hungry horde which 
from mere lust, challenged a tremendously superior force to do battle? Should 
they suddenly have sacrificed to their so-called militarism all their other efforts 
in commerce, industry, art, and science, in order to risk their very existence for 
the love of this Moloch? Do you believe that, Americans? 

Our militarism! What does this expression, quoted until it is sickening, 
mean in the mouth of enemies who, in regard to the energy and extent of their 
armaments, were not behind us? Is there no such thing as militarism in France 
and Russia? Is the English giant fleet an instrument of peace? Was the Triple 
Entente founded in order to bring into being the millcnium on earth? Would it, 
if we had been foolish enough to disarm as a reward for being good, have guaran- 
teed our possessions? Do you believe that, Americans? 

Our general military service, which today is being defamed by the word 
"militarism" is born of the iron commandment of self-preservation. Without it 
the German empire and the German nation, long ago would have been struck out 



12 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

of the list of the living. On earth there is no more peaceful nation than the 
German, providing it is left in peace and its room to breathe is not lessened. 

If it had been different, would the Empire from the day of its founding until 
now, for nearly half a century, actually have avoided every war, often enough 
under the most difficult circumstances? Would it have quietly suffered the open 
or hidden challenges, the machinations of its enemies constantly appearing more 
plainly; — yes, would it have tried again and again to improve its relations to these 
very same enemies by the greatest advances? 

Then, too, many Americans emphasize that they are not making the German 
people responsible for this war, but only and alone the German Emperor. He 
who has never been misled by the fiery enthusiasm of youth nor by the full 
strength of ripe manhood to adorn his brow with the bloody halo of glory, now, 
when his hair is turned gray, should have suddenly turned into a Caesar, an 
Attila? Do you believe that, Americans? Never before has his whole people, his 
whole nation, in every grade of education, in all classes, in all parties, stood 
behind him so absolutely without reserve as now; after he in the last, the very 
last hour, driven by direst need, finally drew the sword to ward off an attack 
from three sides, long ago prepared. 

But then the violation of Belgian neutrality! How, with the aid of this bug- 
aboo, the entire neutral world has been stirred up against us, after England made 
it the hypocritical excuse for her declaration of war! We knew very well that 
England and France were determined to violate this neutrality; but then we 
should have been very good and we should have waited until they did so! — wait 
until their armies would break into our country across our unprotected Belgian 
frontier! In other words, we should commit national suicide. The three great 
powers, allied against Germany and Austria have not been satisfied with their 
own nominal superiority of 220 millions against 110 millions! In addition to 
this they have urged on into war against us a Mongolian people, the most danger- 
ous enemy of the white race and of the culture of the white race. They have 
supplemented their armies by a motley collection of all the African Negro tribes. 
They lead into battle against us Indian troops, and the Christian Germanic King 
of England prays to God for the victory of the heathen Hindoos over his corelig- 
ionists and blood relatives. Americans, does your racial feeling, at other times 
so sensitive, remain silent in view of this unexampled shame? 

Our national army, permeated with ethical seriousness and iron discipline, 
wherein the scientist stands alongside of the farmer, the workman, and the artist, 
should be guilty of unnecessary severity, uncontrollable brutality, brutality against 
people unable to defend themselves? Do you believe that, Americans? 

Justice — that is all that we expect from America. We respect its neutrality; 
we do not ask from it an ideal partisanship for our benefit. If it does not have 
for us the sympathy which we have already extended to it and, after a century 
and a half of unclouded intercourse between the two nations, have anticipated 
there, then we cannot imbue it with that spirit by reasoning. 

How about England? Where, if England should succeed in downing Ger- 
many, would her eyes next be pointed? Has she not herself admitted that she is 
making war on us principally because she sees in us an uncomfortable competitor 
in trade? And which competitor would be the next one after that would become 
awkward to the trust on the Thames? Yes, have they not already hauled off for 
the smash against America, when Japan is given opportunity to threateningly 
increase her power? The same Japan with which America sooner or later will 
be bound to have an accounting, and whose victory over us would make that 
accounting a great deal more difficult for the United States? 

But for the reason that we are looking out from the night to a future dawn: 
for the reason that in the midst of our national need the cause of humanity is 
close to our heart; for that reason it is not immaterial to us how the greatest neu- 
tral nation of culture thinks of us. Americans, the cable between us has been cut. 
It is our wish and hope that the stronger band that unites American ideals with 
German ideals shall not also be cut. 



HEART CRIES AND SOUL CRIES 13 

A VOICE FROM SWEDEN 

The distinguished Professor Fahlbeck urges: 

"Duty may demand of an individual that he refrain from claims to which 
he is entitled, or even that he sacrifice his own life. But this demand may never 
be made of the State. The highest task of the State, and therewith its highest 
duty, is self-preservation. 

"Austria-Hungary as well as Germany, were threatened for their very exist- 
ence and had to take up the sword. For Austria it was a matter not only of pun- 
ishing the people that had become guilty of the murder of a prince, but above 
all, to stifle the Slavic propaganda which Servia had set into motion in order to 
undermine the Austrian State and break off bit after bit of it. And for Germany 
the hour of fate would have been rung three years later at the most, in which it 
would have been forced to defend its newly won unity and position as a Power, 
the fruit of hopes and labors of a thousand years. That was known. 

"There was no choice permitted, so completely had the three allied Powers 
isolated Germany. For Germany, too, this war was a matter of self-defense and 
therefore, justified according to the laws of that duty which rests upon a State." 

The Swedish professor further argues that "if this is true of Germany and 
Austria, the same is not true of their opponents": 

"To be sure, the diplomats of these countries and the press influenced by 
them have continually asserted that Germany threatened the peace of its neigh- 
bors. But the history of the last forty years contradicts such assertions. And at 
heart the people of France, Russia, and England do not believe them either. 

"The many races in Austria-Hungary welcome the conflict with Servia as a 
war of liberation. And the German people have arisen against the mass of their 
foes with a unanimity and enthusiasm unmatched in history. The highest demand 
of duty, on which depends all life of a State and, therefore, all culture, the duty 
of self-preservation, has stepped forth in all its majesty and has found a united 
people. 

"The same is not true of Germany's enemies. It is true that here, too, the 
voices of parties ceased when the Fatherland called; here, too, they fought val- 
iantly, but nowhere with the same enthusiasm and the same readiness. Moreover, 
the opinion of the people, outside of the parliaments, is here far from one of 
unanimity. According to all one hears from France, the average man wanted 
peace far more than war, even if the devotees of the 'revanche' were allowed to 
lead in the debate and adopt the resolutions. In England conditions w^ere in part 
the same, even in the highest circles, as the resignation of Morley, Burns, and 
Trevelyan from the Government proves. In Russia, finally, there can be no talk 
of an opinion of the people itself. 

"Of Servia I need not speak; it deserves all the punishment it gets, and it 
can stand it. And the same is true of Russia and England. They have a surplus 
of vitality, no matter how heavy the reverses they may have to stand, especially 
Russia. Nor can one cherish the least pity for this land, which is a State bent 
on conquest in the ancient sense of the word, and a constant source of danger to 
its neighbors. And still less can one have sympathy for England, whose ruthless 
business policy under the intriguing leadership of Sir Edward Grey has now 
ranged that country among the enemies of Germany although it could have re- 
mained neutral. 

This Should Hold Him for a While 

Rolland, the Frenchman, wrote Hauptmann, the great German author, an 
almost insulting letter, inveighing against Germany; but sought to salve it with 
a lot of fulsome personal cajolery that he thought would insure its "getting by." 

Here's what he got: 

"Naturally, everything you say of our Government, our Army, our people, is 
distorted; everything is false; so false that, in this respect, your open letter seems 
to me a black and empty surface. War is war. You may lament war, but must 
not wonder at things which are inseparable from this elemental consideration. 
Assuredly it is tragic when, in the hand-to-hand confusion of conflict, an irre- 
placeable Rubens is destroyed; but — with all honor to Rubens — I am of those 
in whom the shattered breast of his brother compels a far deeper pain. 



14 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

**And, Herr Rolland, it does no good for you to adopt a tone that implies 
that the people of your land, the French, are marching out against us with palm- 
branches, when in reality they are plentifully furnished wdth cannon, with cart- 
ridges — yes, even with dumdum bullets. Certainly you have grown fearful of 
our heroic armies. This is to the glory of a Power which is invincible through 
the justice of its cause. The German soldier is unsullied by the loathsome and 
puerile were-wolf tales which your lying French press so zealously spreads 
abroad, that press for which the French and Belgian people have their misfortune 
to thank. Let the idle Englishman call us 'Huns'; you may, for all I care, char- 
acterize the warriors of our splendid landwehr as 'sons of Attila'; it is enough 
for us if this landwehr shatters to bits the ring of our merciless enemies. Far 
better that you call us 'sons of Attila,' cross yourself in fear, and remain outside 
our borders, than that you indict tender inscriptions upon the tomb of our German 
name, calling us 'the beloved descendants of Goethe.' The epithet 'Huns' is coined 
by people who, themselves Huns, find themselves disappointed in their criminal 
attacks on the life of a sound and valorous race, because this race knows how to 
parry a fearful blow with still more fearful force. The impotent take refuge in 
curses. 

"I say nothing against the Belgian people. The peaceful passage of German 
troops, a question of life or death for Germany, was refused by Belgium because 
its government had made itself a tool of England and France. This same Govern- 
ment then organized an unparalleled guerilla warfare, in order to cover its inde- 
fensible position, and by that act — Herr Rolland, you are a musician! — struck the 
horrible keynote of conflict. If you are at all in a position to break your way 
through the giants' wall of anti-German lies, read the message to America, by our 
Imperial Chancellor, of September 7; read, further, the telegram which on Sep- 
tember 8 the Kaiser himself addressed to President Wilson. You will then dis- 
cover things which it is necessary to know in order to understand the calamity 
of Louvain." 



WHY DOES AMERICA HATE GERMANY? 

By one of the most brilliant German writers, 
Anton Oskar Klaussmann. 

"Enemies round about usl Friends nowhere! Even the States that have 
declared their neutrality are unsafe and uncertain in their attitude toward us, 
and we cannot count on their good will. 

"What have we done? This pertinent question millions of Germans have 
asked themselves during these last months and have answered: 'We have done 
nothing; we have injured no one; we have blocked no country's path except 
England's, who regarded us as a far too powerful rival in the world's markets. 
We have attended quietly and peaceably to our own business; we have been 
modest and reserved; we have mixed in no intrigues — in short, we have done 
nothing with which any one can reproach us." 

He then pictures the German as he appears to foreign eyes, "the rapacious, 
arrogant busybody, a constant menace to the peace of the world," and asks how 
it can possibly be that such a completely enormous conception should have been 
acquired, and finds that it is the result of a slow poison persistently distilled in 
the foreign press: 

"This misuse of the foreign press against us is part of the policy of the Iron 
Ring — England, France, and Russia. They have systematically depreciated us in 
the eyes of the world. They have 'influenced' the foreign press. The almighty 
ruble, the world-conquering pound sterling, and the French franc have created 
accomplices, and for decades everything unpleasant that has happened anywhere 
in the world has been laid at our door by the press. This German-baiting has 
been conducted at the expense of reason and logic. They have charged us with 
things so senseless and foolish that one would have thought that even a half- 
witted person would be able to see the fallacies." 



HEART CRIES AND SOUL CRIES 15 

THE ELOQUENT OUTBURST OF A "HYPHENATED AMERICAN," 
CORRESPONDENT OF KOELNISCHE ZEITUNG 

(American slobs and toadies superciliously call German-Americans and Irish- 
Americans hyphenated Americans. These whipper-snappers call themselves 
American-Anglo-Saxons, without seeing the double hyphen thereof or even know- 
ing that the Angles and Saxons were both Germans.) 

They were all against us, America the most furious. Search history as you 
will, you will not find a page that records the like of what appears in these days 
in the American press. They write with Indian arrowheads and for ink use 
viper's venom. Has ever one member of the family of nations ventured to employ 
against another such a mode of speech, especially when that other was locked in 
a most sanguinary strife? 

"And America is a neutral State! They won't understand Austria, they mis- 
apprehend Germany. The double murder, the high treason, the dismemberment 
of an Empire — these were whisked away with a gesture as pure invention. The 
demands of Austria were not meant to be met, since no nation with a spark of 
self-respect can meet them. The participation of Austrian officials in a Servian 
inquisition is a thing unheard of. 

"And Germany? Germany alone could have preserved peace if she would. 
But she would not, for during forty years she had armed for this day. In fact, 
she had created the occasion; the Vienna ultimatum was Berlin's handiwork I 

"And Russia? Why did she back Servia? Why did she not give Servia 
good advice? Why! of course she must stand behind her brother Slavs! Only 
Germany might not come to the help of a related people — American morality could 
not brook that. And then Americans, with left-handed meaning, speak of the 
Kaiser as the 'War Lord.' And for the honest Yankee there is no more ghastly 
title than this. For it sounds better to play the peace waltz! 

"In the cables — those that are really cabled as well as those that are written 
in New York; in the contributions from the estimable people — in these especially; 
in the so-called cartoons and the so-called caricatures; in the make-up of the 
reports — everywhere, appear hate and fury in so unrestrained, so wholly excep- 
tional a guise that in presence of the fact one stands astounded. He can't grasp 
or apprehend it. 

" 'There are wounds more painful than those made by an enemy's bullet; 
they are the wounds of the soul which wickedness inflicts.' So nobly spoke 
President Wilson over the bodies brought from Vera Cruz to New York. We have 
recalled with a lively — too lively — memory, these days, this sentence. And we 
had but one wish — rather an honorable wound from a soldier's bullet than to 
suffer longer this soul-martyrdom inflicted by devilish wickedness. A land, a 
people, a nation, is the prey of the American vultures of the press. For these 
conveyers of culture there is no such thing as honor of country, people, or nation. 
Whatever is German is deranged and damned. In their eyes it is a shame to be 
a German. We sought to explain, to tell the story, why all happened as it did 
and as it must. To no purpose! The brand of Cain was on our brow, and it was 
almost dangerous to life to let oneself be seen with it. It was a burden to be a 
German. 

"Yet no! It was not a burden. For the English blows were struck at a fourth 
of the whole American population — the German-Americans. And the Giant awoke! 
His indignation blazed out mightily, and he raised his voice in booming outcry. 
From the Statue of Liberty to the Golden Gate, from Lakes to Gulf, the people 
rose. And well that they did, for had it not been for the German-Americans, the 
hate in America of things German must in the end have brought a declaration 
of war on the Fatherland." 



16 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

/ 
ENGLAND'S PERFIDY EXPOSED BY AMERICANS 

From the Circular distributed by The American Truth Society in Munich, 
Germany, October 12, 1914. 

The American Truth Society in Munich holds England directly responsible 
for this terrible war. 

The official documents recently published clearly show that, instead of exer- 
cising her influence in the interest of peace, she encouraged the hostile attitude 
of Russia and France by promising them her active support in the event of their 
declaring war against Germany. 

No rational mind believes today that Russia and France would have plunged 
Europe into this appalling catastrophe were it not for the assurance given by 
England of her full naval and military backing. 

At the most critical hour in the history of European civilization England 
arrayed herself on the side of the Servian regicides and assassins and in the 
interest of Russian autocracy and barbarism. 

Furthermore, we hold England responsible for the unfortunate condition of 
Belgium and the unhappy lot of her people, whom she has so cruelly duped. 

We further charge that England is responsible for the protraction of the war 
in Belgium and all its attendant disasters to her people. 

Both before and after the fall of Liege the Kaiser offered the Belgians peace, 
compensation, and the integrity of their kingdom, should they then withdraw 
their opposition to the free passage of his troops. Under the compulsion of Eng- 
land and her promise of aid, they declined to accept these terms and England, 
true to her traditions and her history, has abandoned that unhappy land to its 
fate. 

We call the attention of our countrymen to the unanimity and solidarity pre- 
sented by the Teutonic race in its battle for the Fatherland. There is no minority 
in Germany or Austria, for Princes and People are as one man in this struggle. 

In England, on the other hand, three members of Asquith's Ministry resigned 
and on Sunday, October 4th, in this so-called land of free speech 250 mass meet- 
ings of the labor party were suppressed by the government, because they were 
called to protest against the infamous war in which the country was engaged. 

We call the attention of our government to the outrages which are being in- 
flicted by the English authorities on American citizens traveling on neutral ships 
to and from the United States, and we emphatically protest against the general 
and defiant breaches of neutrality perpetrated by England on neutral steamers in 
all waters. 

The American government should not view with complacency or without 
protest the action of Canada in projecting herself into a European war, which 
does not concern the interests or territory of the American Hemisphere. Such 
a policy will naturally invite reprisals by European powers on the North Amer- 
ican continent which will not only menace our peace and security but also imperil 
the cardinal principle of the Monroe Doctrine. 

We recall to the attention of our countrymen the statements recently signed 
by numerous noted American correspondents who had accompanied the German 
army in Belgium and France and who, on their honor declared, that the stories 
of German cruelties and atrocities were absolutely without foundation. 

In conclusion we invoke a protest from our countrymen against the intro- 
duction by England of Japan into this European war, which involves a menace 
to American interest and the supremacy of the white race, and we denounce her 
calling to her aid occidental hordes to crush Western culture and German civil- 
ization. 

COMMITTEE: 

FRANK B. WILLARD, N. Y. C. F. THAYER, Mass. 

J. H. GRISWOLD, 111. JNO. B. BAUER, W. Va. 

MARION LINDSEY, Mo. JULIE A. LENTILHON, Pa. 

S. M. FENN, N. Y. MAUD FAY, Cal. 

JACQUES MAYER, N. Y. FRANK B. HERRMAN, N. Y. 

Mrs. CHARLES CAHIER, Ind. LAWR. D. BENTON, Cal. 



HEART CRIES AND S(3LL CRIES 17 

A SEXAGENARIAN JURIST TURNS SOLDIER 

The renowned Jurist, Dr. Theodore Niemeyer, Professor of International 
Law, to Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia University. 
Dear President Butler: 

I was deeply honored by your call to come to Columbia University as Kaiser 
Wilhelm Professor. With joy and enthusiasm I prepared myself to lecture in the 
winter semester on "International Law and Politics" in a country the practical 
idealism of whose citizens has fostered peace and international law since Ben- 
jamin Franklin. 

Since the days of Frederick the Great, Germany's idealists as well as her 
practical statesmen have accustomed themselves to look upon America with con- 
fidence and sympathy, especially because German blood and German intellect 
have contributed so largely to the idealistic strain in the American character. 

My beautiful academic mission has come to naught. 

I cannot come to Columbia. 

The onslaught of the Muscovite against our entire western civilization and 
the domineering ambition of Russian Pan-Slavism clearly reveal to the political 
and historical thinker a perspective of frightful seriousness. 

Here in this fight, the fist for the time being is more important than the head, 
the sword more necessary than the pen. Instead of working with you in thought 
and word for international organization, I must serve my country in its struggle 
for existence and honor. Even we sexagenarians once more gird ourselves with 
the sword, in order to help according to the best that is in us, in the monstrous 
war forced upon us by Russian autocracy whose agents have been flooding Ger- 
inany for weeks. 

Our hope for the victory of our arms and our civilization is based on our 
faith in the justness of our cause. 

The dangers that threaten our civilization can leave no one indifferent who 
has American civilization at heart. 

We trust that beyond the ocean, too, there are hearts that beat with ours 
and hands astir to help us. 

Very sincerely yours, 

Prof. Dr. Theodor Niemeyer. 
Kiel, Aug. 5th, 1914. 



A WOMAN'S VOICE 

Even hopelessly Anglophile Dr. Shaw in his American Review of Reviews 
calls this "one of the most impassioned and impressive appeals we have yet seen." 
It was originally printed, as a letter from a German lady of Bonn, in the Ham- 
burger Fremdenblatt. 

The war came about, says this writer (who signs herself Mrs. L. Niessen- 
Deiters), simply because England, "safe on its islands did not recoil from a world 
conflagration in order to annihilate a commercial rival." Addressing Americans 
the writer says: 

"Can your clear brains really believe that a man would build a house for forty 
years with never—flagging diligence, in order to set fire to it ruthlessly in the forty- 
first? Such a man would be mad! Can your clear brains really believe that a 
nation that has done the work of civilization and culture for forty years with un- 
tiring industry should voluntarily tear down its own work, destroy its commerce, 
prostrate its arts and sciences, and send the entire flower of its youth into death? 
Do you really believe that a highly cultured nation, with excellent education even 
in the lowest classes, with a mighty, well-organized, peace-loving democracy, with 
a strong woman's movement, would without protest permit any individual what- 
soever, Emperor or Crown Prince, to drag it into such an adventurous policy and 
plunge it into a sea of blood? Do you really believe that the entire German na- 
tion, composed of sixty-six million human beings, had suddenly become mad from 
the Emperor down to the most convinced social-democrat?" 



18 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

"No one in Germany wanted war," says this impassioned letter waiter. "We 
have been forced into it in the most treacherous manner . . . and the guilty 
one is England." 

The Belgian neutrality issue, this correspondent ridicules. That neutrality, 
she claims, as do so many Germans, had already been violated by France, England, 
and Belgium itself. Of Germany's treatment of the Belgians, she says : 

"Belgium did not need to suffer. In Luxemburg not a sparrow's feather was 
ruffled. When the utmost necessity of defense left Germany no other way than the 
march through Belgium, this latter country was formally offered safety and pay- 
ment of all accruing damage in the passage of the troops. Belgium declined. 
When Liege fell on August 7th this offer was renewed. Belgium's honor in the 
face of her allies, France and England, and of the whole world would have been 
intact after the remarkably brave defense of Liege. Germany was ready to meet 
her half way in any proposal. But Belgium wished to side with England and 
France; she was bound to these countries long before, in spite of her paper neu- 
trality. There was no help for her. But why, as long as our troops are so vilely 
slandered in the world, why did not Brussels suffer in any way, shape or form? 
Why not Ghent? Why is there complete order in Liege to-day? Is the same army 
in one place humane and in another groundlessly cruel?" 

The letter closes with an appeal for "fair play." 
"I was born and raised in Germany. But my English mother taught me in my 
childhood what the word "fair" means. Americans, ask your common sense 
which side acted "fair." That side that nmst cut cables in order to be able un- 
disturbed to deny before the world the authorship of the most loathsome war that 
ever was started for commercial reasons and to shift this blood-stained author- 
ship, — oh, derision! — over to the intended victim, so as to add calumny to this 
three-fold attack? Or, that side where a peace-loving people was forced to a des- 
perate struggle, where a nation rises as one man to defend the fruits of forty years 
of cultural work?" 



A MOTHER'S HOLY: I PROTEST. 

By Clara Viebig, one of Europe's foremost writers, ^ 

the George Eliot of Germany. 

It is to me like a holy office which I am fulfilling to-day. I fold my hands be- 
fore I begin to write down here what moves my soul in its deepest depths; which 
fills all my thoughts, my feelings, my entire being to such an extent that I often 
think that my weak w^oman's body can no longer bear itt. Highest indignation, 
flaming anger seizes me. I want to rage in mighty deeds and can only find an out- 
let to my feelings in a stream of unrestrained tears. But they are not tears of 
weakness which I weep and which thousands and thousands of women weep with 
me — they are tears of bitter resentment. The honor of German women has beea 
attacked. An unheard of insult has been done us. 

We arc then, barbarians, women without morals and shame: in that we gave 
birth to sons who are like savages, nag, even worse than these, like bloodthirsty- 
beasts! That we belong to men who only tear themselves from our arms in order 
to spear children, dishonor women, murder defenseless people, burn down villages^ 
plunder cities, destroy works of art and then bring welcome booty to us with reek- 
ing hands ! 

/ protest in the name of all German women, all mothers, all u)ives, all brides^ 
all old and young, all rich and poor, all high rank and low, in the name of the 
most highly educated woman as well as in the name of the most simple work- 
woman. I protest against the shameless slanders, the monstrous lies which arc 
being spread abroad about our husbands and sons. 

I turn over page after page of world history — terrible music of battles roars 
through them, wild tales are told by the centuries; from the first murder, when 



HEART CRIES AND SOUL CRIES 19 

Cain killed Abel, until the present day much blood has been spilled on earth; 
much wrong has been thought, said, done — but never such slander as this. 

No, we Germans are not barbarians. We mothers have not given birth to 
sons who murder for lust; we do not love men who pass through foreign territory 
as murderous incendiaries. As God is my witness, I would no longer call my son 
mine if he were capable of even one of the misdeeds which are attributed with 
inventiveness and cunning by our enemies to our sons. I would spit on a man. 
who stands innocent people against the wall and commands "Fire!" 

The voice is raised in honesty, but it cannot yet penetrate. England closes 
the ear of the nations, she rules all cables; as fluently as France and Russia she 
composes stories of her own successes and our defeats. But a day will come when 
the blind will see and the deaf hear. 

But were we ever really understood? I beliv^ve not; otherwise it would be un- 
thinkable that we are now so misjudged. As a woman, I can only speak of that 
which lies hidden in the innermost depths of the soul of our people. 

If someone will take the trouble to study this soul he will ask himself in shame 
and wonder: and such are supposed to be monsters? Tender is the soul of our 
people. . . . Much love lives in it. The German warrior loves his wife, his 
children. But when his peace is taken from him, when the rough hand of war 
shakes the Fatherland, he grasps his weapons. But the German does it without 
much ado. There is no big talk and no ostentation. 

And it seems that such are necessary, otherwise one is not heard. To be too 
simple is also a fault; but it conceals greatness in it for him who can and wants 
to understand. 

Shuddering, we mothers can only quietly teach our children: "Be like your 
brothers and fathers, brave, yet merciful! Fight when you have to fight, but spare 
when you can spare 1" 

No, we Germans are not barbarians! If we ever should be then may the sun 
grow dark above us and our glory set as if it had never been! 



CHAPTER 11. 

HEART STRINGS A-TREMBLE 

Love took up the Harp of Life, and smote on all its chords with might; 

Smote the chord of self, which, trembling, passed in music out of sight. 

— Locksley Hall. 

The German and American poets have been drawing empyrean circles around 
the Britishers and French since the war began — probably owing to the awful, 
elemental tragedy of their theme. They are chock full of either chain lightning 
or appealing pathos. 

This first poem has all the "divine afflatus:" The vast defiance, imprecation, 
primal passion; and, moreover, the exalted philosophical concept of the evolu- 
tionary principles involved, should the Piebalds prevail and the Cossack knout 
crack over civilization. Technically, too, it is as clear cut as a cameo, radiant as 
a diamond, and full as an opal of the mystic, lambent lights of true poetry. 

WILHELM II, PRINCE OF PEACE 
By George Sylvester Viereck 

O, Prince of Peace! 0, Lord of War! 

Unsheath thy blade without a stain, 
Thy hold wrath shall scatter far 

The blood-hounds from thy country's fane. 

Into thy hand the sword is forced 

By traitor friend and traitor foe; 
On foot, on sea, and winged, and horsed, 

The Prince of Darkness strikes his blow. 

Crush thou the Cossack arms that reach 

To plunge the world into the night! 
Save Goethe's vision, Luther's speech; 

Thou art the Keeper of the Light. 

When darkness was on all the lands, ;, 

Who kept God's faith with courage grim? 

Shall He uphold that country's hands, 

Or tear its members, limb from limb? 

God called the Teuton to be free, 

Free from Great Britain's golden thrall, 

From guillotine and anarchy, 

From pogroms red and whips that fall. 

May thy victorious armies rout 

The savage tribes against thee hurled: 

The Czar, whose scepter is the knout, 

And France, the wanton of the world. 

But thy great task will not be done 

Until thou vanquish utterly 
The Norman brother of the Hun, — 

England, the Serpent of the Sea. 

The flame of War her tradesmen fanned, 
Shall yet consume her, fleet and field: 

The star of Frederick guide thy hand, 
The God of Bismarck be thy shield! 

Against the fell barbarian horde 

Thy people stand, a living wall; — 
Now fight for God's peace with thy sword; 

For if thou fail, a world shall fall. 



HEART-STRINGS A-TREMBLE 



21 



FROM OH FATHERLAND, MY 
FATHERLAND 

By George Frederick Hummel, in 
Fatherland. 

Oh Fatherland, my Fatherland, 

Who stands thee now beside? 

From West and South, from East they 

flare, 
O'er sea they come, by land, through 

air, 
Thee limb from limb to rend and 

tear — 
Oh God! who'll stem the tide? 

Oh Fatherland, my Fatherland, 
Thy sons are true and tried. 
Are swift to strike, or glad to die, 
And strong of arm and sure of eye; 
Now hurl them forth to do or die, 
And God be at thy side! 

Oh Fatherland, my Fatherland, 

Be never thou afraid! 

For He who watches o'er the night, 

Who speeds the fearful lightning's 

flight. 
Who never >'et has failed the right. 
Now lends thee mightv aid. 

Oh Fatherland, great Fatherland, 
Dark days have come and gone 
When thou hast fought, when thou 

hast bled. 
When thou hast sadly tolled thy dead; 
But never hast thou bowed thy head, 
Or put the soul in pawn. 
And now when 'gainst thee wars a 

world. 
Its armies 'gainst thy bulwarks hurled. 
With all thy glorious might unfurled 
Stand, Fight — and battle on! 

FROM THE JUDAS OF THE RACE 
By F. Winthrop, in Fatherland. 

False to your blood, vour race, your 

ancient creed, 
Lusting to seize the little others 

have, 
You struck a sister-nation in her need, 
In foul compact with Mongol, Gaul 

and Slav. 

And then the valiant foe you could not 
crush. 
Nor face with equal sword, you 
struck with lies; 
The pitch-black rivers from your 
presses rush. 
And Truth falls smothered in the 
nation's eyes. 



Louvain! its wounded monuments still 
speak — 
Not of a vandal's but a traitor's 
crime 
Perish in your false throat the curse 
and shriek, 
Defiler of the Temple of all Time I 

If sore beset, whelmed by a vaster 

might. 

The German host with broken 

sword should fall. 
Yet would a glory make their falling 

bright. 
And your base triumph thrust you 

to the wall. 

Thrust you degraded in your day of 
doom, 
Under the hoofs of Asia shod with 
steel. 
When the fell Tartars through your 
cities loom. 
Lash you with knouts and break 
you on the wheel — 

Britain that strove to break the bul- 
warks low 
That German hearts reared 'gainst 
the swarming East, 
Britain that sold the white race unto 
woe. 
And flung the light of Europe to the 
Beast. ^ 

PERFIDIOUS ALBION 

The following is from a rough trans- 
lation of the bitter verses written by 
Prof. Otto von Gierke, of Berlin, accus- 
ing England of having betrayed her 
Teutonic origin. 

Our strength is in the truth of God 
eternal. 
The truth that shall not end. 
Launch, England, launch thy fleets of 
might infernal, 
We stand strong to defend! 

We, too, are Lords of Ocean, nor can 
pardon 
Thy people's bartered troth; 
Our heart and will to victory shall 
harden. 
Staunch to our word and oath. 

Putt'st thou thy trust in cunning cal- 
culation 
That we are few, ye more? 
Learn that the Spirit of the German 
nation 
Makes hosts on sea and shore. 



22 



THE WORLD ON FIRE, 



Seest thou not how its holy flames are 
glowing 
Or hear'st thou not the thunder of 
its call? 
United are we; and united going, 
Ready to stand or fall. 

Storm on with Slavs and strangers in 
alliance, 
Vile-hearted nation, on! 
Thou shalt not set God's judgment at 
defiance. 
Perfidious Albion I 

FROM "IS YOURS THE ONLY LAW?" 

By Frederick H. Martens, in 
Fatherland. 

A reply to Rudyard Kipling's 
Poem entitled: "For All We 
Have and Are." 

Is yours the only law? 

Is yours the only might? 
Must all men bow before 

The menace of your might? 

Again the sword we draw 
That ye have drawn of old, 

That profit come of war. 
That ye may have and hold 

The Seven Seas alone, 

The trader's golden fruit 

The while the Teutons groan 
Beneath the Cossack knout. 

Does not the Teuton leave 

His hostages to fate? 
Does not the Teuton grieve: 

"The Hun is at the gate!" 
May not on the Most High 

In prayer the Teuton call? 
Or is He England's God 

And not the God of all? 

Is not the Teuton's goal 

The same as that ye claim? 
The tears that wring his soul 

Are they in him a shame? 
The Teuton fights for all 

For freedom, culture, right; 
Then, what if England fall?— 

The world shall still have light! 



The following terrific lines are 
taken from Ernst Lissauer's "A Chant 
of Hate" translated by Barbara Hen- 
derson. They give some idea of how 
Germany feels toward England for de- 



claring war on her own blood kin. I 
consider the line: 

"Cut off by WAVES THAT ARE 
THICKER THAN BLOOD" 
the most powerful single line I have 
ever read. 

We have one foe and one alone. 

He is known to you all, he is known 

to you all! 
He crouches behind the dark gray 

flood. 
Full of envy, of rage, of craft, of gall, 
Cut off by waves that are thicker than 

blood. 

Take you the folk of the Earth in pay. 
With bars of gold your ramparts lay. 
Bedeck the ocean with bow on bow; — 
Ye reckon well, but not well enough 

now. 
French and Russian they matter not: 
A blow for a blow, a shot for a shot. 
We fight the battle with bronze and 

steel. 
And the time that is coming Peace will 

seal. 

You will we hate with a lasting hate! 
We will never forego our hate. 
Hate by water and hate by land. 
Hate of the head and hate of the hand. 
Hate of the hammer and hate of the 

crown. 
Hate of seventy millions, choking 

down. 
We love as one, we hate as one. 
We have one foe and one alone — 

ENGLAND! 



Here is a pro-German poem, written 
in English, from the Missouri Staats- 
Zeitung. 

AT BAY 

By Arthur Nelson Owen 

"Nun, Gott mit mir!" cries mighty 

Thor, 
Great Wodan's son and god of war. 
And whirls him in the whirling hell 
And fights it long and fights it well. 
So doth the lone and mighty Thor, 
The dauntless old gray god of war. 

Now round him roars the awful tide 
Of battling beasts from far and wide; 
For out the west as black as night 
The grizzled Osa tears his right 
And seeks to slay the mighty Thor, 
The dauntless old gray god of war. 



HEART-STRINGS A-TREMBLE 



23 



In front old Taura grimly roars 
As with his horned brow he gores, 
And flare his eyes, and smokes his 

breath 
With rage to bury Thor in death — 
With rage to slay the mighty Thor, 
The dauntless old gray god of war. 

Upon the left the fiery Gaul 

Is wild to see the hero fall, 

While Taura bellows 'cross the main 

And calls his beasts from mount and 

plain 
And sets the mighty mob on Thor, 
The dauntless old gray god of war. 

But yesterday he taught them all 
A wealth of music in his hall, 
From Bach, from Beethoven, Mozart, 
And science, medicine, and art; — 
He taught them too, did wondrous 

Thor, 
The god of peace as well as war. 

FROM "TO A WAR POET" 
(Evidently an English one.) 

By Louis Untermyer, in The Masses 

What was your singing for. 

With its two-penny craving for gore; 

With its blatant and shoddy glamor 

False to the core? 

Evil enough is the poisonous clamor — 

Why should you yammer 

Of war? 

Safe in your club or your den 
You watch them go past you again; 
Other than when you first sung them, 
(Thankful that you're not among 

them) 
Soldiers no longer, but men. 
Men — and young boys — who were hot 

with the breath 
Of your ardor and noisy ferment — 
Look at them now; they are broken 

and spent. . . . 
Are you not glad that your doggerel 

sent 
Hundreds of these to their death? 

Go now — stop clearing your throat; 
Drop those fat hands that smote 
Your twanging and trumpery lute. 
Go now — and learn from that battered 

recruit 
Of his jubilant sixty days! 
Of the horror that crowded the dawn; 
Of a fragrant and peace-breathing 

lawn 



Turned to a roaring blaze; 

Of frantic drums thai blustered and 

beat 
A nightmare retreat; 
Of the sickness, the death-dealing 

stenches; 
Of the blundering fight through the 

sleet 
Waist-high in the water-filled trenches. 

Of women ravished in a gust 

Of horrible, hasty lust; 

And children conceived with the 

crippling weight 

Of frenzied and cancerous hate 

The dusk settling down like a blight. 
Screening unnamable hordes; 
Searchlights stabbing the night 
With blinding and bodiless swords; 
Of a sudden welter of cries 
And death dropping down from the 

skies. . . . 

The following majestic lines are 
from the poem "Prinzip," by Cale 
Young Rice, in the December Century 
Magazine. Though Mr. Rice makes 
Germany's case strong enough; yety 
he had probably not read the official 
English and French documents when 
he wrote his fine poem. They show 
that Germany wanted to keep the 
peace and had war forced upon her. 
Of course, Germany's ''pent-world 
hunger" and England's quest for 
peace are myths and Mr. Rice prob^ 
ably recognizes it by now. 

Was it of God, Who found His upward 
way 

To some world-aim thwarted by all 
the mesh 

And fever of impenetrable passions? 

A hundred times within one haunted 
week 

The scales of destiny hung even: 

Who weighed them down to war? 
Was it our God? 

Who spoke into the Teuton veins a 
faith 

That the inexorable hour had rung 

To face the Russian horror, and, per- 
chance. 

By letting their own blood, relieve 
their hearts 

Of the long upward strain that pride 
and fear 

And pent world-hunger kept so peril- 
taut? 

Who used the living enmity of France, 

Bidding her stretch an oath of dark 
allegiance 



24 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



Across Germanic borders to the Slav, 
And plight a fearful or revengeful 

troth 
To the wild Muscovite in whose vast 

breast 
A conscienceness, perchance, of low 

estate 
Is the dim whip that drives him west 

to freedom? 
And England, with her greed, for good 

or ill 
Girdled about the globe, and with her 

pride 
And dominance of empire thundering 
From ships on every sea, who flung 

her heart, 
A-quest for peace, yet with a secret 

sense 
That now her envied foe might be 

struck down — 
Who flung her heart upon the bloody 

fields? 
Prinzip, with nineteen years, can you 

not tell? 

Is God in this? Or was His Imma- 
nence 

O'erwhelmed by atavistic nature's 
surge 

Up from the core of earth? 

A GERMAN BOY'S REPLY 

By Max Zewer 

Translated by C. L. Droste, in 

"Fatherland." 

A boy of sixteen volunteers, 

But cannot stand the test; 
"My boy," the doctor kindly says, 

"Too narrow is your chest." 
**'Tis broad enough to stop a ball, 

*Twill only be my loss; 
And if God wills, it's broad enough 

To wear the Iron Cross." 

FROM "WE AND THE WORLD'* 
By Hanns Heinz Ewers 

In the council of nations we silent re- 
mained, 

Once and twice and again. 

We stood aside and their tricks dis- 
dained — 

Once and twice and again. 

We never hurried, we never rushed 

When the earth was divided; then 

We heard the others greedily cry; 

WE WANTED PEACE— and we stood 
by— 

Twice and thrice and again. 



For years they played their wanton 
game 

More and more again. 

Till the morning dawned when the 
reckoning came. 

Once and never again. 

Till the earth was sick with their 
brazen lies. 

Till the stench of their misdeeds sul- 
lied the skies. 

The enemy's jeers and the coward's 

prod 
Resound from mountain to plain; 
And the German prays: "Now help 

me God, 
Once, but once again." 

Tremble, ye Britains! The German hits 
And the German hits to the core. 
Like a typhoon strong his stainless 

sword 
Smote once and again and more. 
Tremble, ye Russians! and be aware 
The time has come for our score to 

square; 
And the broth you were brewing for 

us of late 
You will swallow and we will hold 

the plate. 
Once again and more. 

A sound re-echoes throughout the 

world 
Such as never was heard before. 
When Germany strikes, the enemy's 

hurled 
To the ground, 'midst the cannon's 

roar. 
Quiet listens the world and out of 

breath 
For this fight is a fight for life or 

death; 
And when the final reckoning's done 
The Germans will have their place in 

the sun. 
Victorious, as never before I 

(Translated for The Fatherland by 
Simon Lieban.) 



Nothing could be more quaintly ap- 
pealing than these subtly simple and 
naively tender lines 

From: "MY MOTHER'S HOUSE." 
By Dr. Hanns Heinz Ewers 

My mother is an old lady 
Seventy-five at least, and perhaps still 

more — 
(She seldom admits it — ) 



HEART-STRINGS A-TREMBLE 



25 



My mother is a woman of Germany, 
And but one of the many untold mil- 
lions. 
My mother's house stands on the 

Rhine — 
A joyous care-free dwelling, 
The retreat of many artists — 
A house that rang with laughter 
For a good half-hundred years. 

My old mother writes: 

"In the library, amidst treasures 

Brought from your travels 

In all corners of the world, 

Between huge Chinese bronzes, 

And the great idols of the South Seas, 

Amidst your Buddahs and Shiwas and 

Krishnas 
There lies a warm-blooded boy — 
Eighteen years old — hardly out of 

school — 
But he is blind to all your fascinating 

treasures — 
In Louvain, near Liege, 
A Belgian woman pierced out his eyes. 

"In the Hindoo-chamber 
Lies a sergeant. 
He laughed today and played 
With your little toy elephants. 
He maintains: 

'Soon I will return to the field.' 
His bandages are very light. 
The other day they had to amputate 

both legs. 
And he doesn't know it. 

"In the balcony room (the one on the 

left) 
Lies a lieutenant. 
He had his cot moved directly to the 

window. 
He never speaks. 
He dreams and gazes meditatively out 

upon our gardens. 
Or over into the Convent gardens 
Where pace the patient monks. 

His betrother was visiting in Paris 

When the war broke loose. 

Then she vanished. 

He heard nothing from her— 

Nothing! 

'Perhaps she's dead' he thinks. 

'Perhaps — perhaps worse — ' 

And then the poor fellow sighs and 

groans, 
'Perhaps — ' and kisses her photograph. 
She was beautiful, 
Very beautiful, this unfortunate girl. 



"And then (in the little guest room) 
There is a lieutenant of the 82nds» 
With a wound in his head, 
Horrible, but not too dangerous. 
He pleaded today: 

'Doctor, I am worth fifty thousand 

marks, 
If you put me right, in three weeks. 
So I can return to the front, 
I will give you every bit of it I* 
This is what they all think. 

In your bed-room sleeps a hussar. 
Nineteen appalling wounds! 
Nineteen frightful shrapnel wounds! 
A fortnight ago, when they brought 

him here, 
He was unconscious — 
He cries and screams. 
But he has never awakened in these 

long two weeks. 
The hot moist hands ever cramp 

themselves 
About his well-earned Iron Cross. 

In the dining-room are three, 

A Pioneer and two Infantrists — 

Such dear, blond youngsters. 

The two can be brought through all 

right, 
But the Pioneer — 
The Pioneer will probably be lost. 
Because Dum-Dum bullets 
Drive such hopeless wounds.'* 

My mother writes about them all. 
My dear old mother, 
But of herself she mentions not a 
single word. 

My mother's house stands on the 

Rhine— 
A house with eighteen beds for the 

sick. 
And is but one such house 
Of the many thousand In Germany. 

My mother is an old lady. 
Seventy-five at least — perhaps still 

more. 
My mother is a woman of Germany — 
And but one of the many untold mil- 
lions! 

Says the Literary Digest: "Where 
Bozen is may be difficult to say. But 
so gay and joyous a place is pictured 
in these lines that we cannot but hope 
some day to find it. Without doubt 
its happy citizens should crown Miss 
Burr their laureate. 



26 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



IN DOZEN OF A SUNDAY. 
By Amelia Josephine Burr 

In Bozen of a Sunday, the air is gay 

with chiming 
In the valley full of belfries every 

clapper is a-swing: 
Bell-song and bird-song, each with 

each is riming 
In Bozen of a Sunday, when the hills 

are glad with spring. 

In Bozen of a Sunday, between the 
walls of roses 

That border merry Talfer with many- 
colored sweet. 

Children are gayer and sweeter than 
the posies. 

And they drown the river's chatter 
with the patter of their feet. 

The boys and girls go walking, when 
Hos^ngarten's flushing. 



Her eyes are on the mountain peaks, 

but little does he care 
For blush of the hills when he sees 

his sweetheart blushing, 
Or for sunset on the snows when he 

can see it on her hair. 

The little feet, play-weary, stumble 

homeward all around them; 
For a child steals down the valley as 

the gold to silver gleams; 
Shy cling of hands, as a touch unseen 

had bound them, 
And his eyes are full of tenderness 

and hers are full of dreams — 
In Bozen of a Sunday, when the hills 

are glad with spring. 

Where could blessed Bozen be ex- 
cept in the Austrian Tyrol; since 
everything etherially tender and ex- 
quisitely spirituelle these days is 
either of German origin or associ- 
ation. 



CHAPTER III. 

POKING FUN AT THE PIEBALDS. 

Particularly "Deah Hoi Henglan', doncherknow." (I shall term them the 

"Piebalds'* throughout, as the "Allies" is a misnomer for them; the only 

real, true, square, unconcealed Allies from the start being 

Germany and Austria-Hungary.) 

SAME OLD ENGLAND 

More than 60 years ago the immortal Heinrich Heine wrote: 

"I know a good Hamburg Christian who could never be satisfied that our Lord 
and 'Saviour was by birth a Jew." 

"As this excellent son of Hammonia feels about Jesus Christ, I feel about 
William Shakespeare. My spirit faints when I consider that he was an English- 
men, and belongs to the most repulsive people whom God in his wrath has created. 
What a disgusting people! What an unrefreshing country! How stiff, how 
cockneyish, how selfish, how narrow, how English! A land which the ocean 
would have gulped down long ago, if it had not been afraid that it would make him 
sick at the stomach. A gray, yawning monster of a nation, whose breath is noth- 
ing but choke-damp and mortal tediousness, and which will certainly hang itself 
in the end with a colossal ship's hawser." 

Here's my guess. Shakespeare was a full-blooded German. Every full-blooded 
Anglo-Saxon is a full-blooded German; because both the Angles and the Saxons 
were German. The wistful yearning for the transcendent and the mystical, mag- 
ical, arrangement of the resulting images, so essential to the very highest order of 
poetry (such as Shakespeare and Tennyson, Goethe and Schiller) is essentially 
German. Likewise the ineffable courage and unbounded patience to question na- 
ture for its secrets and work and wait for the answer resulting in scientists like 
the Bacons, Newton and Darwin, Helmholz, Haeckel, is German to the core. These 
great Englishmen were most assuredly pure German, wholly untainted with the 
deleterious Latin infusion. 

♦ ****•** 

Maximilian Harden has always heretofore been "agin the Government,** 
the stormiest storm petrel of Germany. But he has come clean in this great strug- 
gle. Here is a sample of the packages he has been handing 'em: 

"Only four persons not residents of Essen knew about the new mortar. Must 
we be ashamed of this instrument of destruction and take from the lips of the 
"cultured world" the wry reproach that from "Faust" and the Ninth Symphony we 
have sunk our national pride to the 42 centimeter guns? No! Only firm will and 
determination to achieve, that is to say, German power, distinguishes the host of 
warriors now embattled on the five huge fields of blood from the race of the poets 
and thinkers. Their brains, too, yearn back, throbbing for the realm of the muses. 
Before the remains of the Netherland Gothic, before the wonders of Flemish paint- 
ing, their eyes light up in pious adoration. From the lips of the troops that 
marched from three streets into the parade plaza in Brussels there burst, when the 
last man stood in the ranks — and burst spontaneously — a German song. Out of 
all the trenches joyous cheers of thanks rise for the fearless music master who, 
amid the raging fire, through horns and trumpets, wrapped in earth-colored gray» 
leads his band in blowing marches and battle songs. 

"To exchange the soul of a Viking for that of a New Yorker, that of the quick 
pike for that of the lazy carp whose fat back grows moss covered in a dangerless 
pond — that must never become the wish of a German. 

"We were patient too long. Our bodies are as clean as that of any Anglo-Saxon. 
We have worked harder than he, but we bathe as often. He insists on everybody 
speaking his language and giving up his place to him. Not we. We know and ac- 
complish more with less brag, and won't be forced to bend our backs. To recall 



28 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 
SOME CONTRAST, EH? 




The Prince of Wales. More than 20 
years old. 



How'd you like to have that for your king? You can almost hear those teeth 
chattering. 




Off for the Army. 

The Kaiser and his six sons are always in the field. The Crown Prince is 
a successful general. All of these six have received the iron cross, and most, if 
not all, have been wounded. 



POKING FUN AT THE PIEBALDS 29 

a sentence of Blucher. "The whole world knows that Prussia and Germany are 
always cheated of their rights in spite of every effort." That was in the past. It 
won't happen again. Modern Germany know\s that it is strong and does not have 
to beg for rights to which it is justly entitled. England is allied with yellow stink- 
apes and glories in the assassination of German men, and the rape of German 
women by drunken Cossacks. Englishmen, Belgians, Frenchmen, North and South 
Slavs, and Japanese glorify each other as the bearers and protectors of the highest 
mission of civilization, and call us barbarians. We should be dolts to make de- 
nials. In the days of moribund Rome they called the Germans, who dug its grave, 
barbarians. Your culture, cousins, isn't so delightfully odorous. Accustom your- 
self rapidly to the idea that German soil is the home of barbarians and fighters. 
They have no time now for slander and small talk. Their task is to whip your 
armies, to capture the members of your general stall, to scatter your swimming 
hordes in the ocean. When Tangier and Toulon, Antwerp and Calais, are pros- 
trate under the heel of the barbarian army, they'll be glad to swap yarns with you 
occasionally." 

That ardent pro-British admirer and booster, Samuel P. Orth, in the Febru- 
ary Century, amiably and frankly concedes: 

"But when you stop to think about it, why shouldn't London have a House of 
Lords based on hereditary peerage, scarce one-fourth of whom have a lineage of 
three generations, the rest being successful brewers, bankers, and buccaneers? 
Why shouldn't there be a king without royal prerogative? A democratic House of 
Commons controlled by an autocratic committee called the Cabinet? An Estab- 
lished Church paying its primate $75,000 a year and its bishops $10,000 to $50,000, 
while its clergy barely exists and hundreds of thousands of its parishoners never 
get enough to eat? Why shouldn't opium and rum be sold to the "heathen" of 
Asia and Africa, as long as it swells the bank accounts of the W^est End? Why 
shouldn't w^omen be allowed to get beastly drunk in the "pubs" as long as the pro- 
ceeds of their debauch go to the stockholders who sit on the red morocco cushions 
of the lords? In an island where land is so limited and population so crowded, 
\vhy shouldn't 2,500 people own sixty per cent of the soil and exact tribute of 
millions for the privilege of standing room only? 

"This islander ... is aware of his power, his ability, his success, and has 
auto-hypnotized himself into believing that he is always right. You have never 
heard an Englishman admit that he blundered. He pays the bills of his monument- 
al mistakes, — as he is paying this day, — pulls his cap over his eyes, clenches his 
lists, and plods on. In the sanctuary of his conceit the candle of self-righteousness 
is always burning." 

No, Tennyson is the only one of modern times to acknowledge a blunder, 
namely: At Balaklava where — 

"The soldier knew someone had blundered." 

But they'll "cough it up" by the tens of thousands before this war is over. In fact, 
they are already beginning in droves to believe "some one has blundered." 

ANOTHER ENGLISHER, ALEISTER CROWLEY, THE POET, OUTS WITH IT. 

In point of fact, gallant little Germany is against a world in arms. Austria 
has been torn for many years by internal divisions; only a part of her population 
is of German stock. But against Germany and this one friend are arrayed Russia, 
France, England, Servia, Montenegro, and Japan; and every one of these nations 
is throwing its whole diplomatic weight into the task of getting Roumania, Bul- 
garia, Greece, Italy, Holland, Denmark, and the United States of America to join 
in. We are only 6 to 1 at present, and feel insecure. 

My own view is simpler. We have waited for a long while to smash Germany 
and steals her goods. We have taken a lirst-class opportunity, and we shall never 
regret it. 

We thank God that we are not as other men. There are no stained glass win- 
dows bright enough for us. Our halos are top-heavy. 

We have quite forgotten that the Belgian is the most cruel, mean, and cow- 
ardly cur in Europe; that we have demonstrated till all was blue against him, as 



30 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 




'Pardon me, sir; you're not a 
suffragette, are you?" 




"We'll get so spoiled here that 
our Russian prison fare won't taste 
good any more." 



f 1 


M 


lie 


ff3 


m^H 


'C/f ' 1 • • • ' ' 


/ \ / 


;,f ',',•;■ 







"I say! You've shot a medical 
corps man. Don't you know what 
the Red Cross is?" 

"Oh, that's only a superstition." 




"Are we being taken to be shot?" 

"No. To the bath." 

"Inhuman beasts, these Austri- 




"Great Guns! Can't you keep 
peace while you play cards?" 

"No. Every time the English- 
man loses, he says it's against the 
rules of war." 



Th. Heine in Simplicissimus 



POKING FUN AT THE PIEBALDS 31 

assassin, torturer, mutilator, and cannibal. We have dined in our thousands to 
acclaim his disgrace. We heard of nothing but "red rubber;" of negroes with 
hands and feet, and indeed all that was off-choppable, off-chopped; of rape, rob- 
bery, murder, anthropophagy, and so on, until even our sanest etymologists began 
to derive Belgium from Belial and Belphegor, and other leading Lucifuges of the 
hierarchy of the pit, and now it is Gallant Little Belgium, and les braves Beiges, 
and enough about heroes and martyrs to make any decent man vomit! 

Anything the Belgians may have got, they asked for. . . . 

We have received and feted the would-be assassins of the Tsar; we have imag- 
ined Red Sunday in St. Petersburg, and fulminated against Pogroms and preached 
against Vodka and brutal Cossacks till any one who has ever been to Russia wants 
to go away quietly and die. 

England has spent about nine centuries in hating and despising France, in 
crying out on her for Atheism and immorality, and all the rest of it; Edward VII, 
one night upon Mont Marte, shwears the Frensh are jolly good shportsh, bigod, 
and lo! the Angel of the Entente Cordiale. 

It is disgusting to have to foul clean paper with the name Servia. 

These swineherds who murdered and mutilated their own king and queen; 
whose manners make their own pigs gentlefolk; these assassins who officially plot 
and execute the dastard murder of the Grown Prince of a nation with whom they 
are at peace; these ruffians so foul that even cynical England hesitates to send a 
minister to their court of murderers — these be thy gods to-day, O England 1 
"Heroic little Servia!" 

I have not a word to say against the Montenegrins. They are decent, honest, 
cutthroats. 

And now w6 come to the treacherous monkeys of Japan, the thieves and 
pirates of the East. Who makes the shoddy imitations of European and American 
machinery, forges the names of famous firms, sticks at no meanness to steal trade? 
Who, under cover of alliance with England, fostered in China a boycott of all 
English goods? 

Only yesterday Japan was at the throat of Russia — or at least trod heavily on 
one big toe. Today in Tokio they sing the Russian national anthem, and cheer 
the ambassador whenever he appears. 

Why not? of course. It is natural, it is human; it is all in order. But it is 
fickleness and treachery; it is hypocrisy and humbug. Diplomacy is of necessity 
all this; but at least let us mitigate the crime by confession! 

Human naturs is never so bad when it is not shack led by the morality of 
emasculate idealists. 

Does any person who knows the Far East believe even in an opium dream that 
Japan had any quarrel with Germany, or any care for her alliance with England? 
Kiau-Chau was an easy enough prey; well, then, snatch it, and chance th ewrath 
of schoolmarmed America and the egregious Wilson. But for God's sake, and by 
the navel of Daibutsu, and the twelve banners of the twelve sects of Buddah, let 
us spew out the twaddle about honor, and justice, and oppressed China, and the 
sanctity of alliance! 

The English are ever on the lookout for atrocities. Bulgarian atrocities, 
Armenian atrocities, Tripolitan atrocities, Congo atrocities, and now German 
atrocities. One notices that the atrocity of the atrocitators varies with their po- 
litical objectionability. The parable of the mote and the beam was made for Eng- 
land, surely. 

And it is England that can produce a firm of piano manufacturers to start a 
boycott of German pianos — their own pianos being all German but the cases! — and 
a boycott of German music. And it is England that can show a composer who 
writes to the papers that he will now "try harder than he ever tried before" to 
beat Bach and Beethoven and Brahms and Strauss and Wagner! In the meantime 
he will refrain from the wicked and unpatriotic luxury of Vienna steak! And 
since Kant thought two and two made four, for all true Englishmen they must 
make five in future. 

Have Englishmen forgotten their own Royal family? 

"The very dogs in England's court 
They bark and howl in German." 



32 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 
CAN'T SEE THE POINT 




(Froelich in Staats-Zeitung.) 

(This class of cartoon is said to have 
forced him to the rear of the front in 
France.) 

France has today three million men 
in the field and one million in reserve, 
and France has less men of fighting age 
than England. If the English came for- 
ward to fight as the French have done, 
there would be four and a half million 
Englishmen fighting today. Instead, there 
is not a quarter of a million. The other 
four and a quarter million Englishmen 
are sitting at home at ease, attending foot- 
ball matches, playing golf, sporting lit- 
tle Union Jacks in their coats and killing 
the Kaiser with their mouth. They are 
not fighting — they won't fight. They want 
the Irish to do the fighting for them 
while they reap the profits and swindle 
the Irish if the war ends in England's 
favor. There are eight million available 
men in England. — Sinn Fein (published 
in Dublin, September 19, 1914.) 

The bottom cartoon was boastfully repro- 
duced in England with the 6th scene 
left out. 



'What's that?" 

'That's a gun, my Prince." 

'What then is a gun?" 

DRIFTING INTO CONSCRIPTION 



From Ulk. 






in Egypt. 


in India. 




11 




K -. 



< GuiBKAniSon. ^ s 



in Canada. ^'^^ '^ot ^ England. 

Germany will fight to her last man — that is not merely a phrase. 
England will fight to her last Frenchman — that is not merely a joke! 

— Vital Issue. 



POKING FUN AT THE PIEBALDS 33 

Edward VII spoke English with an accent; and at the first hour of war with 
Germany we found the first Lord of the Admirality a German Prince! 

Until this year England has never been at war with Germany in the course of 
history since the Conquest. Our very speech, half German, betrayeth us. 

All this is finished. The German is a Hun, and a Vandal, and a monster, and a 
woman torturer, and a child-murderer, and runs away in his millions at the sight 
of a Territorial from Hoxton. And the British Army has won victory after vic- 
tory against enormous odds, some sixtyfold, and some eightyfold, and some an 
hundredfold, and has retreated (for strategic purposes, luring the hosts of the 
Kaiser to their doom) nearly as fast as a frightened man can run, and exactly as 
fast as a victorious host can pursue them. 

Algerians, not only Arab, but of negroid and even negro stock, have been 
hurled into line: India has gushed out a venomous river of black troops; the 
desperate Ghoorka, whose kukri is thrust upward through the bowels, the Pathan, 
whose very women scavenge the battlefield to rob, murder, and foully mutilate 
the dead, the fierce Sikh, the lithe Panjabi, the Bengali even. 

Against the Boers we Englishmen did not dare employ savage troops. Europe 
would have risen in arms at the abomination. 

To-day we do it, because all armed Europe is already either for us or against 
us. 

And, with all that, we use the Japanese! Can we complain if the German 
papers say that the Kaiser is fighting for culture, for civilization, when the flower 
of the allied troops are black, brown, and yellow "heathens," the very folks whom 
we have stopped from hook-swinging, suttee, child-murder, human sacrifice and 
cannibal feast? 

It is a lie. The Kaiser has always been, and is to-day, a man of peace. He has 
indeed lived up to the maxim Si vis pacem, para belhim and, loaded with the leg- 
acy of hate which the impolitic annexation of Alsace-Lorraine had thrust upon his 
shoulders, he could do no less without offering the breast of Germany to the rav- 
isher. A lamb to the slaughter, indeed, with La Revanche in every mouth! What 
would he do, with men yet alive who remembered Jena, and the ceaseless raids 
and ravages of Bonaparte? 

But in a hundred crises he kept his head; he kept the peace. He had plenty 
of chances to smash France forever; he did not take them. An ambitious prince 
might have put a relative on the throne of Louis XIV while France was torn by the 
Boulanger afi"air, the Panama scandal, the Dreyfus horror, when Diogenes might 
have gone through France with a modern searchlight for his lantern without find- 
ing a single man who was not a traitor to his country, or at least to the Republic. 
The Kaiser never stirred. 

It would have been easy to destroy the Russian menace at the time when Japan 
was straining the sinews of the Tartar giant, or when the Moscow Revolution 
showed that the Tsar could not trust his own soldiers, and the Imperial Guard, 
hastily summoned from St. Petersburg, shut up the garrison of Moscow in the 
Kremlin, trained their own guns upon them, and disarmed them. The Kaiser did 
nothing. 

Surely the Russo-Japanese war and the Boer war showed plainly — if any fool 
there were who could not see it a priori — that the greatest, widest, best, and only 
impregnable military base is the sea. Such a power is the supreme strategic ad- 
vantage. Is it then so treacherous and aggressive if Germany, threatened by an 
alliance (hypocritically described as an entente) of powers outnumbering her 
six to one, sought to keep open a path toward that universal base of operations? 

Even the stolid Teuton nature must tire of the perpetual squeeze of Russia, the 
spurs of the French chanticleer struck ever and anon in his hide. 

Agadir was a fresh humiliation; for a few acres of uninhabitable jungle on the 
Congo he had to surrender all interest in Morocco, a country he had nursed for 
years. 

It is still a diplomatic secret, and I must not betray it. But who financed Italy 
in her Tripolitan adventure, and why? 

Austria still blocked in the Adriatic, Italy alienated from the Triple Alliance, 
the Slav expanding everywhere, Constantinople itself threatened, Roumania (even) 



34 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 
KITCHENER OF CARTOON. 





Top left: Post card by Baiimgarten: "Kitchener Creates New English Armies." 
Top right: from Jiigend: "Now, General French, what have you accomplished?" 

"We have captured the world's championship in running." 
Bottom left: Th. Heine in Simplicissinms: The British 42-Centimeter Gun. 
Bottom right: from Jiigcnd: Kitchener and Poincaire at the head of their black- 

and-tans carrying Civilization to the world. 



1^ ! POKING FUN AT THE PIEBALDS 35 

turning toward Russia, he must have felt like a victim of that maiden of armor and 
spears that once executed justice on the weak. 

And all this had been accomplished without sword drawn or cannon fired. 

Here then stood Wilhelm, dauntless but defeated. His diplomacy had failed; 
his one ally was handicapped by domestic unrest; he was isolated in Europe; 
England was increasing her navy at a pace which he could never beat; France, 
with her three years' law, was promising to increase her army by 50 per cent, at 
a stroke; Russia was turning the flank, pushing on through the Balkans subtly 
and surely. 

And the Kaiser answered, "I am the servant of God; I stand for peace. The 
Crown Prince is for war; 1 banish him from the Court. When I am dead let him 
be master; but while I live I am for peace. And let him that draws the sword 
perish by the sword!" 

And the Triple Entente gathered closer and chuckled: Aha! he dare not fight. 
Let us frighten the garotte! 

So Servia plots and executes the crime of Sarajevo. Austria, its aged Emperor 
smitten again and most foully, demands imperatively the disclosure of the ac- 
complices of the assassins. Servia replies in terms of evasion, evasion impudently 
cynical. Austria stirs. Russia — and there is no pretense possible, th'i murder of 
the Archduke was either instigated by Panslavisra or was a threat equally to the 
Tsar as to any other ruler — replies by mobilizing. 

Sir Edward Grey spoke for peace, spoke of neutrality, in the House of Com- 
mons at a moment when thousands of British troops were already in Belgian 
waters, and the fleet, concentrated and ready for action, already held the North 
Sea. 

France withdrew her troops from the frontier "so as to avoid any possibility 
of incidents which might be mistaken for aggression," while her Algerian and 
Senegambian troops were on the water, half-way to Marseilles. 

He knew that this time there was no hope of peace. Abdication itself would 
hardly have saved Germany from a long-prepared, carefully-planned war, a war 
whose avowed object, an object in the mouth of every man in the street, was the 
destruction of Austria, the dismemberment of Germany. They had got him. 

Even a worm will turn; even a Quaker will fight if he is cornered. 

Wilhelm struck. 

I write in English for those English who count, and this is the proper way 
to view the matter, Germany is a rich prize. We can capture German trade, Ger- 
man manufactures, German shipping, German colonies. We can exact an indem- 
nity sufficient to cripple Germany for a dozen generations. We can split Germany 
into six kingdoms or republics, and weaken her beyond repair forever. We can 
double-cross Russia by insisting on the creation of a new Poland. We can destroy 
the German fleet, and economize on dreadnaughts. We can force our poletariat ta 
accept conscription and stave off the social revolution. We can drown the Irish 
question in Lethe; we can fight a general election on the war, and keep the present 
gang of politicians in office. 

And, best of all, we can achieve all this in the name of Honor, and the Sanc- 
tity of Treaties, and the Cause of the Democracies, and we can ask the blessing of 
God upon our arms in the name of Liberty, and Civilization, and Prosperity, and 
Progress. 

*••*♦**** 

From an open letter of an Englishman: 

R. L. ORCHELLE to H. G. WELLS : 

At the first sign of Continental hostilities the yellow rags began to yelp for 
war. All the poison of hate instilled into the ignorant people by alarmist scribes 
and the mongrel war-mongers of the gutter-generalissimo Harmsworth was set to 
boil. And at last even the liberal government yielded — yielded to the scrofulous 
patriotism of the yellow press, to the pressure of jingo politicians and the jealous 
dolts of our merchants and manufacturers, and declared war upon a power with 
which we had never had a quarrel, which in no wise threatened nor attacked us 
(save commercially where her efficiency was greater than ours) — a nation already 
at a terrible disadvantage and beset on all sides. All Englishmen who were once 



36 



THE AVORLD ON FIRE. 




....^^ 



t 
T 




"A Dead Cat!" — PYom lAistige Blaetter 






^c^::^i^"%^%C 






.^ 






^^^.:^,^,^ 








1 

-4 



,#" 



- tv 









"When the Zeppelin Comes." — From Lustige Blaetter. 



Ireland, in "Columbus Dispatch. 



LES HARICOTS VERTS 



"That fresh French bean, the Haricot Vert, is called in English the Scarlet 
Runner. The British soldier, as we all know, wears a scarlet coat. During the 
marvelous 'strategic concentration to the rear' from Mons and Charleroi to the forts 
of Paris — the greatest marathon race in history — the British sprinters easily won 
the race. They are now known in the Latin Quarter as *Les Haricots verts.' " 

"The Irish regiments lost the race. Their survivors are now prisoners in Ger- 
many and determined that, rather than again join the 'Scarlet Runners,' they will 
become true 'Haricots verts' (green beans), and form themselves into an Irish 
brigade as their forefathers did in 1745, to fight for Irish freedom in a foreign 
army." — Irish-American Press Bureau. 



POKING FUN AT THE PIEBALDS 37 

proud of our national boast of fair-play must now ask themselves whether that 
fine quality is not struck from our hearts forever. 

Not for humanity; not for the protection of a smaller country on a technical 
point of neutrality, not out of love for France has England gone to war. This vile 
and hideous cant may serve for the unthinking mob. It may serve to disguise the 
real issue and the real motive (already appearing in the cries of "Seize Germany's 
trade") and allow us to pose, for a time, as a highly virtuous power. 

We have gone to war because the hour had come when we might best injure 
our suggested and artificial enemy with least danger and most profit to oursleves. 
We war against her because we feared her, because her science and cleverness had 
beaten our own stupid manufacturers in the markets of the world. 

I repeat, and I know that in the hearts of many Englishmen whose mouths are 
now muzzled my words must strike the chords of conscience and of justice — our 
nation has proved what history will certainly describe as a traitor to our race. 
She is supporting the Latin against her Teuton brothers, she is supporting the 
monstrous Slav, though ashamed to avow it — and now, as a crowning infamy she 
has incited the Mongol hordes against her own blood. This is to me the infamy 
of infamies — the cowardice of all cowardice! 

England has now given a powerful incentive to Tartar and Mongolian forces 
which shall overwhelm her as well as the rest of Europe. First the Slav, then the 
Mongol. 

Shame and humiliation are in my heart as I write. I see the fair name of age- 
ing England blackened by a treachery that arises from weakness and fear, from 
hypocrisy and injustice. 

******** 

Bernard Shaw in his : "The Man of Destiny," published in 1898, makes Na- 
poleon say: 

"When he wants a thing, he never tells himself that he wants it. He waits pa- 
tiently until there comes into his mind, no one knows how, a burning conviction 
that it is his moral and religious duty to conquer those who have got the thing he 
wants. He is never at a loss for an effective moral attitude. As the great champion 
of freedom and national independence, he conquers and annexes half the world, 
and calls it colonization. When he wants a new market for his adulterated Man- 
chester goods, he sends a missionary to teach the natives the gospel of peace. The 
natives kill the missionary: he flies to arms in defence of Christianity; fights for 
it; conquers for it; and takes the market as a reward from heaven. There is noth- 
ing so bad or so good that you will not find Englishmen doing it; but you will 
never find an Englishman in the wrong. He does everything on principle. He 
fights you on patriotic principles; he robs you on business principles; he enslaves 
you on imperial principles; he bullies you on manly principles; he supports his 
king on loyal principles, and cuts off his king's head on republican principles. 
His watchword is always duty; and he never forgets that the nation which lets its 
duty get on the opposite side to its interest is lost." 
In a recent statement Shaw swats 'em thusly: 

"Worse than the abusive people are the vainglorious people. They seem to be- 
lieve this war is going to be settled by Englishmen shrieking to the four corners of 
the earth that they are the flower of the human race and the Germans the dregs of 
creation. This war is going to be settled by blood and iron." 



MAXIMS OF NAPOLEON. 



"The falsification of official documents is more frequent among the English 
than other nations." 

"It is confirmed that the English diplomats issue two reports on the same 
subject, a false one for the public and a confidential true one for their ministers." 
"Nothing is so dangerous, so perfidious, as official intercourse with English 
diplomats." 

"These English lies taught me the lesson to change my methods for all times. 
Since then I have dealt with political matters in official form only through my min- 
isters; they could at least issue an authentic denial." 



38 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 
SAME OLD FRANCE 




Upper left, from Jugend: France crying: "Am I fighting for honor or to get back 
the gold I loaned Russia?" 

Upper Right, from Jugend: French prisoners in Lechfeld Camp: "My father writes 
me that he knows this place well. He was here in 1870." 

Lower left, from Der Wahre Jacob : Freedom's Bards. 

Nicholas: "Come on boys, we must sing the Marseillaise, so the world can know 
we are fighting for Freedom." 

Lower right: French Artillery. (From Kladderadatsch) : "If Mme. Caillaux had 
used a French cannon instead of a Browning revolver, Calmette would still 
be alive." 



POKING FUN AT THE PIEBALDS 39 

"The English are impervious to higher sentiments. They are all to be had for 
money." 

"Has the English aristocracy any laws? Is there an assassination from which 
it would be deterred? Is there a right which it would not trample under foot?" 

THOMAS JEFFERSON, writing to Thos. Liper, June 12, 1815, said: "We con- 
cur in considering the government of England as totally without morality, insolent 
beyond bearing, inflated with vanity and ambition, aiming at the exclusive domin- 
ion of the seas, lost in corruption and deep-rooted hatred toward us, hostile to lib- 
erty wherever it shows its head, and the eternal disturber of the peace of the 
world." 

EVEN THE TURK Heaps Coals of Fire on England's Head. 

\Yho would have supposed this editorial possible? It appeared in the Turk- 
ish paper Tanin (Constantinople) some time before Turkey entered the struggle. 

"They would not look at the evils in their own countries, or elsewhere, but in- 
terfered at the slightest incident in our borders; every day they would gnaw at 
some part of our rights and our sovereignty; they would perform vivisection on 
our quivering flesh and cut off" great pieces of it. And we, with a forcibly con- 
trolled spirit of rebellion in our hearts and with clenched but powerless fists, 
silent and deprest, would murmur as the fire burned within : 'Oh, that they might 
fall out with one another! Oh, that they would eat one another up!' 

"And lo! to-day they are eating each other up, just as the Turk wished they 
would. Whatever the people may say, there is in the nature of things an essential 
justice that will at last come to light. To the benighted and the victims of injust- 
ice it brings a smile on the face and a joyous lightening of the heart. 

"This being the case, there is in our hearts a new feeling of mercy. We can 
not forget what an eternal and inextinguishable torch of learning and the arts 
France has always been. We can not be blind to the fact that Germany with its 
brains and its industry is a highly civilized nation. We will not be behind in 
praising the high position the English hold in the civilized world, even after 
they have basely betrayed a trust committed to their honorable keeping. For this 
reason, while we pray that this awful war may be taken out of the way as soon as 
possible, we also hope that in some way or other out of this stream of innocent 
blood may shine forth the light of a strong and lasting peace and righteousness.'* 

A FRENCH OFFICER'S OPINION. 

Concerning the difficulties of co-operation between the French and English 
forces, a (French) captain of artillery from the Rheims garrison expressed him- 
self as follows: 

"The English belong in an office, not on a battlefield. They will never in the 
world furnish a fit soldier. They may be able to whip wild natives, but when it 
comes to facing a European army they remind me of a cow studying a painting by 
Rubens. They are simply incapable of imbibing the spirit of a modern army. A 
few well-trained officers excepted, their officers are incompetent in initiating ex- 
igent movements, however calm they may be in giving orders. ... If they had 
only stayed away! They are chiefly to blame for the horrible confusion at Mau- 
beuge, Charleroi, and before Namur. But for the English we would never have 
been beaten. We must now try to repair the damage as well as we can — put the 
English somewhere in a quiet place where they can do no harm; but for Heaven's 
sake, not in co-operation with the elite troops of the French. Imagine holding the 
forces together in the bloodiest battles by commands from an open dictionary. 
But you can't realize the grotesque blunders which resulted from misunderstood 
orders among the commanding officers. My regiment was in the act of destroying 
an English division with a fire that would have wiped it out in fifteen minutes 
but for the timely action of the English in raising the white flag to negotiate a 
surrender. They were as ignorant as we as to whom they were fighting. If we 
had had a chance of trying them out in a joint maneuver never in the world would 
we have suffered England to send even a thousand men to help us." 



40 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 





From Kriegs Bilderbogen 
The Russian sells helmet, trousers, and 
horse. 

The Frenchman is always a cavalier. 



From Meggendorfer Blaetter 
The hole in the pants. 



DOT LEEDLE TOMMY ADKINS. 
By Rev. G. A. Schmidt, in (Fatherland.) 



Dot leedle Tommy Adkins, 
Him go to var vun day, 
Him sail avay from Dover town 
Und landed by Calais. 
Ach Himmel! 

Und Tommy hav a red coat, 
Und Tommy hav a gun. 

So Tommy nefer stop to think 
Dat brrhaps him hav to run. 

Like sixty! 

Him shcare dem bloomin' Germans, 
Vot valk right into France, 
Und den dey valk right back again, 
Und nefer hav no chance. 

Aber nit! 

Him hav one grand excursion 
From London to dee Seine, 
Und mid some sporty mad'moiselles. 
Him drink dat dry schampagne. 

By golly! 

But "blawst" dem German soljers, 
Dey spoil him all dat fun, 
Und Tommy like to hustle home, 
Before dat fight begun, 

Don't you know! 



POKING FUN AT THE PIEBALDS 
SAME OLD RUSSIA 



41 









V^ f 



Upper left, from Simplicissimus. 
The Russian Navy. Neptune: "Ha, 
ha! Another Russian admiral who 
used alcohol for fuel." 





' 


mJ"" ■ 




' '^ ■^>i 


^ 




K^^ 




3- 




1 \ 



I 

1 

1 # 


^ 


i 




# 


m 


^^1 


^ 




^ 


^ 


f/f 


N 


mW. 




£ 



Two lower lefts, from Simplicissimus. Cossacks. Top, In Peace; lower, In 
w^ar. 

Top right, from Simplicissimus. The Cossack General bogged in a Poland 
marsh: "This damnable war! One can steal so much easier in peace." 

Bottom right, from Kladderadatsch : "The Czar will cross the German frontier 
at the head of 5,000,000 Russians." (A Renter News Dispatch.) 



42 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



SAME OLD FRANCE. 

Thomas Carlyle wrote: "No nation ever had so bad a neighbor as Germany 
has had in France for the last 400 years; bad in all manner of ways; insolent, 
rapacious, insatiable, inappeasable, continually aggressive. 

"And now, furthermore, in all history there is no insolent, unjust neighbor 
that ever got so complete, instantaneous and ignominious a smashing down as 
France has now got from Germany. Germany, after 400 years of ill-usage and 
generally ill-fortune from that neighbor, has at last the great happiness to see its 
enemy fairly down in this manner; and Germany, I do clearly believe, would be 
a foolish nation not to think of raising up some secure boundary fence between 
herself and such a neighbor, now that she has the chance." (She took Alsace- 
Lorraine back in order to get a good mountain barrier.) 

"There is no law of nature that I know of, no Heaven's Act of Parliament, 
whereby France, alone of terrestrial beings, shall not restore any portion of her 
plundered goods when the owners they were wrenched from have an opportun- 
ity upon them. To nobody, except to France herself, for the moment, can it be 
credible, that there is such a law of nature. . . . That pathetic Niobe of Den- 
mark, reft violently of her children, is also nearly gone; and will go altogether 
so soon as knowledge of the matter is had. Bismarck, as I read him . . shows 
no invincible 'lust of territory,' nor is tormented with 'vulgar ambition,' etc.: 
but has aims very far beyond that sphere, and in fact seems to me to be striving 
with strong faculty, by patient, grand, and successful steps toward an object 
beneficial to Germans and to all other men. That noble, patient, deep, pious, and 
solid Germany should be at length welded into a nation, and become Queen of 
the Continent, instead of vaporing, vainglorious, gesticulating, quarrelsome, rest- 
less, and oversensitive France, seems to me the hopefulest public fact that has 
occurred in my time." 

SAME OLD BELGIUM. 
Editor, Dear Sir: 

The New York Sun quotes with approval a passage from Caesar's Commen- 
taries concerning the fact that the Belgians are the bravest of the Gauls and con- 
tinually at war with the Germans, but if the editor of this paper had read farther 
than the opening chapters of Caesar to the place where he compares all the Gauls 
with the Germans he would have learned that the former "fear the latter so much 
that they cannot bear even the sight of their eyes." This still seems to be the case 
today. 

Very truly yours, 

Herbert Sanborn, In Fatherland. 

HOT SHOT. 




^ UXTKA^^RSTESTBRirisH^ 

\., ., , 1 SE/:^. VICTORY 0F» 
?n00ERN TIMES 

lONtGERnftIM 

KRUI5ERSUNK 

EN6LRNP LOST 
NOTHING, EXCEPT 

ION€-eW+5€^^-ftN^ \ 
=B^e- TO R P E PO B O ATS 
'CR055EDOUT8Y CfN^^KJ 

TUESPQY, 



J 



Cartoon from "Vital Issue." 

Insulting references to the German fleet 

are not needed. The English Admiralty has 

once, at least, had occasion to acknowledge 

their courteous conduct of the war. . . . 

It was deplorable to talk about "digging 
out the rats." And seldom or never was 



swagger more signally rebuked. Even as he 
spoke some of the skulking rats of his im- 
agihation were putting out to sea for an en- 
terprise of conspicuous peril. On the day 
that his speech was reported we heard also 
the result of this high venture, mourning the 
loss of three fine ships and many priceless 
lives. Let us at least respect the courage of 
the men who could strike such a blow at our 
immense preponderance of force. — London 
Nation. 

The greatest regret for Americans in this 
whole war is that Little Wincing Chudgl is 
half American. No wonder the English con- 
tempt for us grows stronger every day. 

THE "TIMES" SO HATES GERMANS It 

NO LONGER MAKES USE OF THEIR 

INVENTIONS 

There is an unconfirmed but credible 
rumor that Mr. Adolph Ochs, owner of the 



POKING FUN AT THE PIEBALDS 



43 



Times, who prints a daily anti-German ed- 
itorial in order to spread hatred and ill- 
feehng against the German race has decided: 

Not to have his type set up any longer on 
Merganthaler linotype machines, because 
they are a German invention. 

To abandon his rotrogravure process, be- 
cause it was invented by Germans, who are 
supervising the pi'ocess in his own offices. 

To discontinue the further use of the half- 
tone process, because it was invented by 
Germans, and that 

He is going to go out of the publishing 
business because a German, Gutenberg, in- 
vented printing, and another, Koenig, the 
steam press. — Fatherland. 

And now we have the freedom anthem 
written on the flags of France, with her 
black African dependents; of Russia, with 
her oppressed millions; of Servia, with her 
anarchists and regicides; of unknown Monte- 
negro; of Japan, with her suicides and an- 
cestor worshipers, and of England, with her 
Indian Hindus and Mohammedans! Is that 
conglomeration not a travesty on the word 
freedom? — Dr. McNeil. 

England (as Wordsworth, Carlyle, Ruskin, 
Matthew Arnold and other cultured English- 
men of our day have frequently lamented) 
now lives, as a people, on the sordid plane 
of thinking which regards the accumulation 
of material wealth and the various forms of 
luxury to be obtained thereby as the sole 
aim and end of civilization. — Prof. Sanborn. 

"England is fighting against Europe's 
most progressive, most scientific nation, as 
the Ally of Russia, the most repulsive, cruel, 
and despotic nation in Europe. England's 
aim is to release a horde of barbarians 
against Europe. 



That "Nation of Shopkeepers," as Na- 
poleon called England, cannot rise above the 
money standard. A story illustrates this 
fact. An Englishman recently said to a Ger- 
man: 

"We shall fight it out to our last penny." 
"We," replied the German, "shall fight it 
out to the last drop of our blood." — John L. 
Stoddard. 

"NONE SO POOR TO DO HER REVER- 
ENCE" 

In a recent issue of the New York Evening 
Sun, Admiral \on Tirpitz, the Secretary of 
the Navy, "The Grand Old Man" of Ger- 
many, is represented as holding up the Brit- 
ish Lion by the ear and contemptuously 
shaking it. 

The Angels merely laugh at the frisky 
fantastic Frenchman — they weep at the sol- 
emn, soggy, Englisher who, deceiving only 
himself, dolorously with carbonic acid laden 
breath, tries to convince the world of his su- 
periority. 

The English are rapidly becoming the 
laughing stock of the world. At the outset, 
Americans were easily duped by them. 
Knowing nothing of Germany or the Ger- 
mans, they were easily lured into believing 
any sort of canard the Britishers would 
trump up against their German blood. But 
they are beginning to sit up and take notice. 
Ere long they will have that tired feeling, 
like unto a bunco-ee. 

So the good old German name, St. Peters- 
burg, has been changed to Petrograd. Why 
don't England also repudiate her good old 
name Anglo-Saxon and make it say Nippo- 
Slavonian? 



SCINTILLATIONS. 



(Don't skip this, gentle reader. These 
rollicking rascals often pack the whole thing 
in a mustard seed. Besides, these twinkles 
are AMERICAN sidelights, our planet's 
only unclouded patch of sky.) 

If the Germans should blow up the city of 
London, the news censors would probably 
admit it several weeks after the newspapers 
had printed it. — Erie Times. 

What a pity there aren't divorce-court 
news censors instead of war news censors. — 
Louisville Courier Journal. 

The "lights -out" order still obtains in 
England, and the censors are doing their 
share to keep the country in the dark. — 
Philadelphia North American. 

Even in the British War Office the best 
time to deny an interview is before granting 
it. — New York World. 

The stupid ass who is acting as British 
press censor is Germany's best ally in Eng- 
land. — Knickerbocker Press. 

It's a mighty poor atrocity that doesn't 
get by the censor these days. — Washington 
Post. 



Correspondents who have had trouble with 
the British censor are now discovering that 
anything about the Kaiser's bad health in- 
variably gets through. — Chicago Herald. 

A Government monopoly of salt in Russia 
should raise an enormous revenue, consider- 
ing the amount the natives will have to take 
with the censor's reports. — Washington Post. 

Perhaps the censor has made it necessary 
for King George to go to France in order to 
get a little news of the war. — Philadelphia 
Inquirer. 

Perhaps the censorb' are merely culling out 
the interesting parts of the war dispatches, 
intending to sell them to the magazines later 
on. — New York American. 

As a device for suppressing knowledge of 
the horrors of war the censorship is ques- 
tionable; it throws the correspondents back 
upon their imagination. — Springfield Repub- 
lican. 

It is notable that the censors allow all the 
flapdoodle to pass; precisely the stuff a 
newspaper man would blue-pencil. — St. 
Louis Globe Democrat. 



44 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 




Jewish viewpoint, (Leon Lsrael, Lola, in 
Der Grosser Kiuides) : How Russia will 
keep her promise to the Jewish soldier after 
the war. (Sign on post reads: "Jewish 
Pale — no Jews allowed outside this fence.") 



Italian viewpoint, from // Miilo 
(Rome). The English Octopus. "He 
has entangled the world in his ten- 
tacles, and reaches for new prey; — 
but he'll have to look out for those 
Germans." 




This monument cartoon from the N. Y. 
Herald is indeed a quaint one; its quaint- 
ness consisting in this: that although the 
Kaiser is trying to arouse Uncle Sam's sym- 
pathy by pointing to some of Germany's 
monumental names in Science and Art; yet 
he does the pointing wdth the sword he is 
using in the great war; and also the quiz- 
zical expression on Uncle Sam's face. "You 
pays your money and you takes your 
choice." 



POKING FUN AT THE PIEBALDS 



45 



The most magnanimous offer yet made is 
that of the Czar, who is ready to sacrifice his 
last peasant to get to Berlin. But by that 
time the last peasant might be willing to sac- 
rifice his last Czar to get back to the farm.— 
Springfield Republican. 

Nicholas says he'll stand pat if it takes 
his last moujik— the most patriotic declara- 
tion uttered since Artemus Word offered all 
his wife's relatives on the altar of his coun- 
try. — Washington Post. 

The Czar declares he is going to Berlin. It 
would be only hospitable for the Kaiser to 
postpone his call on Paris to be in the former 
city to receive him.— Baltimore American. 

Petrograd must be jubilant today. The 
Germans have been forced to accept another 
important Russian city.— Charleston News 
and Courier. 

The real optimists live in Petrograd. No 
matter what the Germans may do to them 
it is never important.— Indianapolis Star. 

If the war is over by then, Col. Roosevelt 
might employ that Petrograd dispatch writer 
to serve as Progressive campaign prophet 
during the 1916 canvass.— New Orleans 
Times-Picayune. 

The activity of the German Army in the 
Bast, in the face of the Petrograd dispatches 
telling of the crushing German defeats, leads 
us to the belief that the Germans belong to 
the class who don't know when they are 
Whipped.— Nashville Southern Lumberman. 
Could a Teutonic pursuit of the Russian 
bear be referred to as chasing the growler? 
—Philadelphia Ledger. 

If Russia had gone in for the good roads 
movement the Germans would probably be 
in Warsaw now.— Charleston News and 
Courier. 

In permitting 70,000 of its troops to be 
captured, perhaps it was the shrewd plan of 
the Russian General Staff to exhaust the 
German commissariat.— Washington Post. 

It seems to be the Rusisan plan to coax 
the Germans up into Russia and then pray 
for a snow storn.— St. Louis Globe Democrat. 
It is a long, long way from Warsaw to 
Posen when you keep traveling back and 
forth on the road.— Pittsburgh Dispatch. 

The Austrian Army fights best after being 
destroyed. — Florida Times-Union. 

Perhaps the Czar is delaying the capture 
of Berlin until he can find a new name for 
it. — Washington Post. 

Russia and Japan are bunking together, 
but the first one up in the morning will get 
the best suit of clothes.— Los Angeles Times. 
The Russians in plundering the National 
Museum at Lemberg and removing the col- 
lections to Petrograd have of ocurse done 
so only to "keep them safe."— New York 
World. 

The Czar's promises to treat the Jews just 



as he treats his other subjects are calculated 
to send a shiver of apprehension throughout 
Israel. — Boston Transcript. 

Just imagine what the Russian war-poems 
must look like! — Columbia State. 

Russia may win pronounced successes; but 

we can't pronounce 'em.— Salt Lake Tribune. 

We see by the papers that the Austrians 

have captured two sneezes and a hiss. — 

Columbia State. 

There are many Russian names that need 
revision worse than St. Petersburg.— Syra- 
cuse Post- Standard. 

One trouble with the Russians is that 
when they name a town they rely too much 
upon the tail end of the alphabet.— Cleve- 
land Index. 

The Russian soldier who shouts "On to 
Przemysl!" is apt to be shot for hissing the 
Czar. — Kanesburg Illuminator. 

The Russian offensive, a cable last night 
said, is becoming accentuated. Russian ac- 
centuation is giving us trouble enough as it 
is. — New York Tribune. 

The news that Przemysl has been again 
surrounded has evoked a chorus of groans 
from the composing room and proof room. — 
Sioux City Journal. 

It would be interesting to know how the 
Russians pronounce Mszczonw and Przem- 
ysl before nation-wide prohibition went into 
effect and how they pronounce them now. — 
Ohio State Journal. 

The Germans have retreated from the line 
running from Strukow to Zgierz, Szadek, 
Zdunska, Wola, and Wozniki.— Petrograd 
statement. So have most of the war-news 
readers. — Indianapolis News. 

Don't make fun of Russian names until 
you are sure of Arkansas and Illinois. — Mil- 
waukee Journal. 



A British army officer is authority for 
the statement that the hens of Flanders go 
right on laying in the midst of the most ter- 
rific bombardments. He does not tell us, 
however, whether this indicates sangfroid or 
fright. — Knickerbocker Press. 

We learn from London that Athens has 
heard that there is a rumor in Petrograd 
that Austria is about to beg for peace.— St. 
Louis Globe Democrat. 

England's only objection to the bear that 
walks like a man is that he doesn't walk fast 
enough.— New York American. 

England expects every liar to do his duty. 
—New York Staats Zeitung. 

With 1,000 British chauffeurs sent to the 
front, the subsequent charge should make 
Balaklava resemble three dimes.— Washing- 
ton Post. 

George Bernard Shaw having explained 
all the other war explanations, England is 



40 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 





WVAE. EXTRA IMA 
R.E5TAUR.AMT 



Top left: DeMar in Philadelphia Record: "Here goes." 

Top right: McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune: Buying their Christmas presents. 



POKING FUN AT THE PIEBALDS 



47 



more at sea than ever. — Atlanta Constitu- 
tion. 

Europe has knocked the "H" out of Hague 
and g-iven it the ague. — Birmingham News. 
And added an "H" to the English ell. 

It is announced by a scientist that "two 
thousand feet above the earth the air is free 
from germs." — But it isn't from bombs. — 
Philadelphia Press. 

When the Britons lose a first-class warship 
they take the loss philosophically — it means 
one less danger to be feared from the Ger- 
man mines.— St. Louis Globe Democrat. 

Heretofore the English have been much 
pleased to hear that the enemy was flying, 
but the news now makes them take to their 
cellars. — Florida Times-Union. 

We trust that England's new tax on tea 
will prove more successful than that other 
one. — Boston Transcript. 

This King George thanks the British col- 
onies for their help. It was different in 1776. 
— Springfield Republican. 

As to "the rules of civilized warfare," we 
are being shown daily that it's a poor rule 
that won't work both ways. — Pittsburg Ga- 
zette-Times. 

Since the Zeppelin scare, it is said that 
business in London is looking up. — Nashville 
Southern Lumberman. 

How London must envy the Eskimos those 
six-months days! — Columbia State. 

Perhaps if the Dacia's new American own- 
er had been named "Cholmondeley" instead 
of Breitung, Britain would not be so dubious 
about the genuineness of the sale. — Chicago 
News. 

Perhaps Great Britain may be persuaded 
to indicate some part of the sea — if there is 
any part — that she doesn't own, so that we 
may sail our ships without getting into 
trouble — Philadelphia Press. 

Canada boasts that the war has not caused 
any increase in prices. But then Canada is 
a belligerent and not a neutral nation. — San 
Francisco Chronicle. 

From present indications the supply of in- 
ternational law isn't anything like equal to 
the demands made on it by various com- 
batants. — Chicago Herald. 

Britain's list of contraband of war seems 
to include almost anything it sees and is 
likely to want. — Indianapolis Star. 

It may be an unpatriotic thought, but it is 
possible that those young Britons who are so 
slow about enlisting don't want to be killed. 
— Indianapolis News. 

A correspondent at the front says that the 
British troops in the trenches are suffering 
greatly from frozen feet. It is also under- 
stood that the Britishers at home who won't 
enlist are troubled with a similar complaint. 
— Nashville Southern Lumberman. 

The twenty leading authors who approve 



Great Britain's participation in the war are 
still in London. — Chicago Post. 

How long is it since English ships have 
not dared to fly the British flag in the Irish 
Sea? — Springfield Republican. 

It is worth noting that those English writ- 
ers who rail at the United States for its 
"frozen neutrality" have so far failed to il- 
lustrate their literary contributions with 
pictures showing themselves lined up at 
Kitchener's recruiting stations. — New York 
Herald. 

The man who flooded the German positions 
on the Yser, says a cablegram, has been 
decorated with the Order of King Leopold. 
What's that, a rubber medal?— Boston 
Transcript. 

Belgium is no doubt surprised to learn 
from Lord Kitchener that the war won't be- 
gin until next May.— Detroit News. 

******* 

Kaiser William has his faults, but he 
hasn't turned any poet laureate loose on the 
neutral nations.— Sioux City Tribune. 

"Russians capture Kaiser's pedigreed cat- 
tle." But his goat still evades them. — Bos- 
ton Herald. 

The German Emperor, who is personally 
directing his armies, is now able to reach 
the battle front in almost any direction. — 
Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 

The Kaiser is going back to Berlin for a 
long stay, and the generals on both frontiers 
are probably joining in the chorus under 
their breaths, "For this relief, much 
thanks!" — Baltimore American. 

The Kaiser is beloved of his people, whose 
hopes and aspirations he understands and 
tries to realize. — Truth. 

Up to date no arrival of troops at Tip- 
erary has been reported, which indicates 
that the way to that place is indeed quite 
long. — New Orleans States. 

The Germans are not such a long way 
from Tiperary. — Charleston News and Cour- 

We suppose the Germans now write that 
hymn "Deutschland Uber Allies." — Columbia 
State. 

At this rate the Germans will soon have 
such big guns that they can do all their 
fighting without leavingBerlin. — Philadelphia 
Public Ledger. 

If romance belongs to France, Germany in 
material achievement has been the United 
States of Europe. Its thinkers in many ways 
have dominated modern thought. One of 
the chief assets of the world is at stake in 
the titanic contest. — Public Ledger. 

That cruiser Emden must be the Flying 
Dutchman we've heard so much about. — 
Boston Transcript. 

The "dreadnought" is misnamed when the 
submarine is around. — Knickerbocker Press. 



48 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



The great German movement has hardly 
commenced. It will be astonishing if we fail 
to hear, as the war progresses, of very de- 
cisinve German victories. — The Democrat, 
Madison, Wisconsin. 

Bottling the German navy seems to re- 
quire some other kind of cork. — Chicago 
News. 

The mines in the North Sea are the source 
of almost as much trouble as those in Colo- 
rado. — Nashville Southern Lumberman. 

We deem it our duty to warn visitors from 
the country against sharpers who will en- 
deavor to sell them stock in the North Sea 
mines. — New Orleans States. 

Too much light can never be shed upon 
what may prove to be one of the greatest 
wars in history; if not, from the point of 
view of slaughter, at least through its final 
outcome. — The Daily Argus-Leader (Sioux 
Falls, S. D.) 

The theory that heavy artillery concus- 
sions caused the earthquakes cannot be dis- 
carded solely on the ground that the theor- 
ist is a German. — Cleveland Leader. 

With the war closing in on the Suez Canal 
It looks as if the fighting has reached the 
last ditch. — Boston Traveler. 

Lord Aylmer suggests that German pris- 
oners in the war be sent to Canada and en- 
couraged to settle there. No higher com- 
pliment was ever unconsciously paid by foe 
to foe than this! — Chicago Herald. 



The Christian nations believe in turning 
the other broadside to those who smite them. 
— Louisville Courier-Journal. 

Japan, of course, is also greatly concerned 
for the preservation of western civilization. — 
New York Evening Sun. 

One principle of international law seems 
to be that China has no rights that any 
other nation is bound to respect. — St. Louis 
Globe Democrat. 

It begins to look as if Japan's promise to 
turn Kiauchow over to China has as many 
conditions attached to it as a Carranza res- 
ignation. — Chicago Tribune. 

The Christian religion is said to be spread- 
ing in China. Are the Chinese mobilizing? 
— Cincinnati Times-Star. 

In trying to oust our consuls in Belgium 
we fear that Germany has failed to take into 
consideration the traditional tenacity of a 
Democratic office-holder. — Boston Trans- 
cript. 

Another interesting point is. what effect 
will this war have on some of those titles 
that have been bought by the rich papas of 
American girls? — Duluth Herald. 

Russia has ordered a million horseshoes 
from a Pennsylvania concern. Germany 
should retort by ordering a million rabbit 
feet from the South. — Chicago Herald. 



Selling stocks and bonds to Europeans wiio 
may want their money at inconvenient times 
constitutes a kind of entangling alliance that 
General Washington overlooked. — Chicago 
News. 

London's proposed ban on Turkish cigarets 
looks like another severe blow at a great 
Southern industry. — Boston Transcript. 

There's a joke on somebody when a fel- 
low asks for 15-cent cotton and gets $9.50 
flour. — Boston Transcript. 

With the usual fate of peacemakers we 
stepped in between the combatants and got 
hit with a war tax. — Salt Lake Tribune. 

As Europe's experience is demonstrating, 
the greatest foe of liquor is war. That fact 
ought to make very enthusiastic champions 
of peace out of our brewers and distillers. — 
New York World. 

It isn't likely that a foreign foe will ever 
invade Washington, but even if he did we 
fear he could not be induced to carry off as 
loot the national monuments in Statuary 
Hall. — Boston Transcript. 

These magnificent promises to the Poles 
must sound mighty familiar to the colored 
voter. — Boston Transcript. 

California is having a hard time on ac- 
count of the war, being unable to export her 
wines to Europe for importation to the 
United States. — Chicago News. 

"All dressed up and nowhere to go" seems 
to be the plight of American trade. — Chicago 
News. 

Something wrong with Government "co- 
operation" when neither capital nor labor 
can find employment. — ^Wall Street Journal. 

Having finally got rid of the high tariff 
wall, the American consumer finds that Eu- 
rope has nothing to sell this year. — Chicago 
News. 

"The worst has befallen," says the Boston 
Transcript, in this cruel war. The price of 
beans has risen. — Springfield Republican. 

Germany seems to have lost all of her for- 
eign possessions with the exception of Mil- 
waukee, St. Louis and Cincinnati. — Houston 
Post. 

Why worry about the possibility of being 
drawn into the war? We might have a 
chance to give up Colorado. — Cleveland 
Leader. 

If exports keep up we shall soon have to 
get our meals in Europe. — New York Ameri- 
can. 

If this war doesn't quit throwing Ameri- 
cans out of employment we will have to at- 
tack some nation in order to give our people 
something to do. — Jacksonville, Fla., Times- 
Union. 

"In England the retail price of the very 
best cuts of beef is 25 cents a pound." — News 
item. Let's go to war. — Rochester Post Ex- 
press. 



POKING FUN AT THE PIEBALDS. 



49 



The German Federal Council is going to 
establish a maximum price for foodstuffs. 
That's one thing the United States Govern- 
ment doesn't have to bother with — the trusts 
do it. — Philadelphia North American. 

The call to arms in Europe is hardly more 
general than the call to alms in the United 
States. — Kansas City Star. 

Prices of foodstuffs in Europe as a result 
of the war are now so high that if the con- 
liict lasts ten or twelve years more they may 
reach the level prevailing in this country. — 
Boston Transcript. 

Whatever else may be said of our prepar- 
edness for war, this country is not lacking 
in armchair strategists. — Houston Chronicle. 

There seems to be a demand in the textile 
trades for practical chemists to teach Ameri- 
can workmen how to dye for their country. 
Los Angeles Express. 

Cotton is said to be bringing a very high 
price in Germany, but if you haul a bale over 
there, be sure to have a United States flag 
on your wagon and don't drop any hs 
around on the street. — Fort Worth Star-Tel- 
egram. 

One thing at least the European conflict 
has done — it has demonstrated that stock 
exchanges are not absolutely essential to the 
country's existence. — Norfolk Virginian- 
Pilot. 

"This war can't last forever," the cotton 
growers are assured. But, unhappily, 

neither can the cotton growers. — Columbia 
State. 

W"e note that a Pennsylvania paper that 
prints a joke about Przemysl also contains a 
political dispatch froin Punxsutawney. — 
Boston Transcript. 



The gaps in the British lines in Belgium 
and France have all been filled, says Lord 
Kitchener, but no War Office can fill the 
gaps that have been made at home. — New 
York World. 

Appears to us that the Allies had better 
warm up a new general. — Columbia State. 

According to headline strategy, an enemy 
is first crushed, then he is completely sur- 
rounded, then his line of retreat is cut off, 
then his advance is definitely checked. — New 
York Evening Post. 

The "cream of the French army" the cor- 
respondents told us General Joffre was lead- 
ing seems to be whipt cream. — Columbia 
State. 

France is ordering big guns from Bethle- 
hem, not Bethlehem of Judea, where the 
peace movement started, but Bethlehem, 
Pennsylvania. — Brooklyn Eagle. 

Mme. Calliaux is serving as a nurse in a 
hospital. Why don't they make room for her 
on the firing line? — Dallas News. 



War Note: The Allies seem to have ad- 
vanced another inch and a half in the 
Woevre region. — Kansas City Star. 

Our idea of an apostle of optimism is the 
French professor who figures that the Allie« 
will get to Berlin by 1943.— Columbia State. 

ALL THE SAME IN GERMAN, TOO. 
Some notion of the harmony with which 
Gens. Joffre and French work together may 
be gained from the following discovery: 

: J O F I F R E : 
: F R E I N C H : 

That is, they work together, either offens- 
ively or defensively.— St. Louis Post Dis- 
patch. 



A Paris paper has offered a big cash prize 
for the best map of Europe after the war ia 
over. A sort of prize puzzle, as it were.— 
Baltimore American. 

One of the grand openings for bright youns 
men in Europe after the war will be the 
claims and damages department.— Chicago 
News. 

After Europe sobers up it will take a hun- 
dred year to get rid of the headache.— Bir- 
mingham Ledger. 

The greatest lesson so far taught by the 
war is the geography lesson.— Salt Lake 
Tribune. 

In Europe there is no such thing as the in- 
nocent bystander.— Nashville Banner. 

It is distressing, too, to think of the num- 
ber of things that never happened that we 
will have to unlearn after the war is over 
and the truth comes out. — Pittsburg Dis- 
patch. 

The way things are going it looks as If 
Davy Jones's submarine fleet may be the 

largest of all by the time the war is over. 

Boston Transcript. 

At the finish of the war Colonel Roosevelt 
may be invited to Europe to locate the lost 
rivers and boundary lines.— Memphis Com- 
mercial-Appeal. 

The only nations that did not have war 
thrust upon them, it appears, are those that 
are not at war. — Newark News. 

If the little Balkan States would only take 
a cure for the annexing habit it would save 
a lot of complications. — Chicago Herald. 

The idea is that the Kaiser should have 
sat down amiably and let the allies gobble 
him up. — Indianapolis Star. 

The reasons wiiy the war must end soon 
are almost as convincing as the recent reas- 
ons why there could not be such a war. — St. 
Louis Globe Democrat. 

Fears are becoming general that the real 
inwardness of the European war will not be 
satisfactorily elucidated until the graduat- 
ing exercises next June. — Washington Post. 



50 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



Aeroplanes have still a long way to go be- 
fore proving that they are more deadly in 
war than in peace. — San Francisco Chron- 
icle. 

Wasn't it only a little while ago that some 
of our peace friends protested against the 
fortification of the Panama Canal on the 
ground that the world had advanced too far 
to permit of war? — Seattle Post-Intelli- 
gencer. 

A lot of folks will need an introduction be- 
fore their voices will be recognized in a 
prayer for peace. — Los Angeles Times. 

The only mistake that Andy Carnegie 
made in erecting his peace palace was in not 
having it fortified. — Washington Sentinel. 

Even Providence can not grant victory to 
everybody, but the praying will do all of 
them good. — Wall Street Journal. 

We are inclined to believe that this Trill 
be the last great war until the next one. — 
Boston Transcript. 



Izzet Pasha, the new head of the Turkish 
Army, probably doesn't know for sure him- 
self. — Washington Post. 

The entrance of Portugal into the conflict 
somehow reminds us of the fly assisting old 
man Noah's elephant up the ark's gang- 
plank. — Boston Transcript. 

The Turkish question: Which of the Al- 
lies is to have the wish-bone. — Indianapolis 
Star. 

Rather indiscreet of Turkey to step into 
the limelight so near Thanksgiving. — Louis- 
ville Times. 

The Russians are calling Constantinople 
"Czargrad," but it might better be spelled 
with a final "b." — Tacoma News. 

Give the Turk some credit. He hasn't an- 
nounced that Allah is on his side. — Columbia 
State. 



Turkish-Americans may now write to the 
papers.— Philadelphia North American. 

The entrance of Turkey into the war pre- 
sages a gobble of some sort.— Cleveland 
Plain Dealer, 

Guns are booming around both Sinai and 
Ararat. It is an old world and still full of 
trouble. — Springfield Republican. 

Every day now we are expecting Liberia to 
issue a Black Paper. — Newbern Sun. 



Bernard Shaw undoubtedly is saying many 
sensible things about the war, but at this 
time it is very foolish to talk sensibly. — 
Chicago News. 

"President Wilson," announces a current 
headline, "Sees No Tangible Basis for Peace 
as Yet." In Europe, Mexico, or the Ameri- 
can Senate? — New Orleans Times-Picayune. 
A "war" tax of $1 a horsepower on auto- 
mobiles may mean also a prohibitive tax on 
the Democratic band wagon. — Indianapolis 
Star. 

The embattled armies are never so busy 
that a squad cannot be detached for the duty 
of arresting Richard Harding Davis. — New 
York American. 

When all the war correspondents get back, 
several high government officials will have 
stiff competition on the Chautauqua circuit. 
— Chicago Herald. 

"Go to war, men," says Mrs. Pankhurst. 
Won't that Sherman quotation ever die? — 
Philadelphia North American. 

Col. William Jennings Bryan, late of the 
Second Nebraska Volunteers, sees the end of 
militarism. — Philadelphia Record. 

At the risk of giving a free ad. we will 
observe that there is something singularly- 
appropriate in the fact that Secretary 
Bryan's new volume of lectures is published 
at thirty cents. — Boston Transcript. 



CHAPTER IV. 

SCRIBES, PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES, COWARDS, LIARS. 

To start with, England cut the German cable to keep the true facts from 
America. Next, she changed the date of the French note in the 1st Blue Book 
from August 1st (or later) to July 30th to try to show the date of Germany's 
military preparations; (the contradiction was so glaring that, in the new edition 
of the English Book and in the French Book, both dates were left entirely out). 

Next, (in order to prove Germany began mobilization on July 23rd, the date 
of the Austrian ultimatum) both the English and French Texts designated the 
23rd as SATURDAY. It was, in fact, THURSDAY. 

Next, English officialdom for some time concealed from the public the vital 
proposition by Germany to keep out of Belgium, and not to take a foot of French 
soil, or even of French colonies, if England would only keep hands off. This was 
not printed until the Cockneys were all inflamed over the Belgium matter and war 
had been declared by England against Germany distinctlv ON ACCOUNT OF THE 
VIOLATION OF BELGIUM'S NEUTRALITY BY GERMANY. (If a just God reigns 
in Heaven, how will He punish this, the most colossal crime of omission of all 
the ages?) 




Picture on left from Kladderadatsch. "John Bull Strangles Truth." 
On right, from Jiigend. At Kiau-Chow: "So far as our Army, Industry, and 
Science are concerned, we owe about all to Germany; but when it comes to 
Underhandedness and Treachery, our British friends are our best teachers." 

Listen to Sir Ramsay MacDonald, a high Member of Parliament, and today 
fighting as a patriot for England; here are his exact words: 

During the negotiations Germany tried to meet our wishes on certain points so as to 
secure our neutrality. Sometimes her proposals were brusque, but no attempt was made by 
us to negotiate diplomatically to improve them. They were all summarily rejected by Sir 
Edward Grey. Finally, so anxious was Germany to confine the limits of the war, the German 
Ambassador asked Sir Edward Grey to propose his own conditions of neutrality, and Sir 
Edward Grey declined to discuss the matter. THIS FACT WAS SUPPRESSED BY SIR ED- 
WARD GREY AND MR. ASQUITH IN THEIR SPEECHES IN PARLIAMENT. 



ZI 



52 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 





THE SHIRKER. 
By Stephen Phillips. 
He moors the skiff within the cooler gloom 
Of river branches, unaware of doom; 
Cushioned he lolls and looks in faces fair, 
Nursing with placid hand anointed hair. 
It seems he scarcely can uplift the weight 
Of summer afternoon, far less of fate. 
So the young Briton, sprawling in his strength, 
Supports a heavy Sabbath at full length. 
Till sinks the sun on more than that sweet river. 
Perhaps upon our day gone down forever. 
But tho that orb may be an Empire set 
Tomlinson lights another cigaret. 



Top left, from Meggendorfev Blaetter: 
At a British recruiting station. 

Top right, from London Punch: "Great 
Scott! I must do something. Dashed 

if I don't get some more flags for the 

old jigger." 



''Won't you Ple-e-ase come join the noble British army?' 

this first appeared.) 



(I can't find where 



SCRIBES, PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES, COWARDS, LIARS. 



53 



BIG LIES, LITTLE LIES, BLACK LIES, YELLOW LIES, PART LIES, 

AL-LIES. 

The English Press and Bureauocratic Censorship have broken all lying 
records. They have made themselves so ridiculous with their unconscionable 
lies that even their most ardent readers feel a secret contempt for them. But, as 
is so often the case, the lies have proven in at least one vital regard a most terrible 
boomerang. A cowardly Press and Officialdom have naturally made a nation of 
cowardly youths. It is almost impossible to drum up recruits, from all the multi- 
millions of England. Why? They read every day of how a handful of Britishers 
slaughtered Steen Thousand Germans. How a single private captured a whole 
regiment. But, even the muddle-headed British youth can argue that if that's the 
case why haven't the German's long ago been driven back to Berlin? The London 
Times makes this point thus : "If the success of the Allies is as definite as claimed, 
and if the enemy are being pushed back, why are so many more men needed?" 
Add to this the effort to smother high-grade obituaries and notices of first-class 
funerals among the officers; and the long deferred furloughs of privates who 
should have been back by now; and the recent raids by war-ships on the English 
coast; and the still more recent air-ship raid over the tight little Isle — and the 
English youth finds a lump in his throat whenever enlisting is mentioned. 



0, WHAT COWARDS! 




The smashed super-dreadnaught Audacious. 
Right hand cartoon from London Standard. 
"All the other boys on earth can see the epic- 
ture show, but nurse won't let him." 




Away back yonder in October, the British superdreadnaught Audacious was 
smashed and beached by the Germans. The British people don't know it yet, 
except those who have learned it from outside papers. 

A well known clergyman in England writing December 4th, savs (N. Y 
Times) : 

"It is just leaking out in the papers that a disaster happened about a month ago to 
a ship, or some ships, in our navj', which the Admirality, under its unprincipled head Win- 
ston Churchill, is keeping so far secret, but which American newspapers had accounts of and 
discussed. 

"For those of us here who have so many relatives in the navy this Is painful enough. 
Can you do me the kindness of telling me what this disaster was? 



54 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

"In the end a Government of England that carries out secret methods and lives by 
unprincipled actions must come to an end. But in the meantime those in the country whose 
kindred are in the firing line have to suffer the axieties of suspense, and the fate of the 
Government brings no compensation for these anxieties. 

"England's real heart is true still, and has not lost its old integrity, and I hope for 
a resurrection of all its good after the shackles of the usurpers, Asquith and his gang, are 
broken." 

Says Oswald Garrison Villard (Anti-German but honest), President of the 
New York Evening Post, in the American Review of Reviews : 

The Germans undeniably have a just grievance against the British censor and so has 
the American press. To those conversant with the facts as to the stupidity, the one-sidedness, 
and tlie political bent of the British censorship, this war lias given a severe shock; it will be 
hard for them to believe again in the good sportsmansliip of Englishmen. 

STUPIDITY OF THE CENSORS 

"The London censorship has been a disgrace to England. As if there were no mails 
from Italy, the London censor suppressed the late Pope's call to Catholics to pray for peace, 
on the ground, — it is so believed in some quarters, — that the United States, being a great 
Catholic country, it would not be to England's advantage to have American Catholics pray- 
ing for peace! 

"Not content with suppression, these same half -pay colonels next edited an important 
utterance by President Poincare, of France, changing it to suit their taste because they did 
not like some of the things he said and did not wish the English public to know them. This 
was a typical case, but by no means the only one of alteration of dispatches. 

"The censors have not stopped there, however; they have censored or suppressed 
their own Prime Minister's speeches and those of the Foreign Minister on the ground that 
they would create an unfavorable impression abroad. They have laid heavy hands on the 
King's message to India and the Dominions, and even the outgivings of their own press 
bureau. 

"Although Winston Churchill solemnly promised at the beginning of the war that 
■every naval loss would be promptly reported to the House of Commons, the sinking of the 
^Audacious' was carefully suppressed both at home and abroad. They have so completely 
concealed all news of the military movements and progress that at the censor's doors are 
laid the responsibility for the slump in recruiting. 



It seems incredible, but the Russians are almost as bad as the English. Here 
is a sample of the Russian Official "Word of Honor:" 

The Havas Agency (Anti-German), reports from Paris, August 25: 

" 'We learn from St. Petersburg that Russian mobilization wiiich began July 25 was 
completed on August 24. 

" 'The "Vossiche Zeitung" calls attention to the fact that the German White Book 
states that the Russian Minister of War, Suchomlinow, stated to the German Special Military 
Ambassador at St. Petersburg on July 27, that on that date NO ORDERS FOR MOBILIZATION 
HAD BEEN ISSUED. The Russian emphasized this declaration with his "Word of honor." 
Only July 29 (two days later), the Chief of the General Staff joined the Minster of War in 
this assurance upon the "word of an officer." ' 



Here's how they do it in Italy: 

"While in Italy I read of revolting German cruelties, of revolutions in Berlin, of the 
shooting of the Socialist, Liebknecht, and even of the unwillingness of soutliern Germans to 
fight with their northern brothers— ALL ABSOLUTELY UNTRUE. EVERY ACHIEVEMENT 
OF THE GERMANS AND AUSTRIANS WAS IGNORED OR MINIMIZED. 

"Thus it was for weeks maintained that, although the German army had indeed 
entered the city of Liege, all its surrounding forts were still in the hands of the enemy. Until 
I crossed the Tyrolese frontier from Switzerland, I had no idea of the amazing success of the 
Teutonic forces, or of the wonderful spirit of universal brotherhood, love and devotion to 
the Fatherland which prevail from the Rhine to the Vistula and from the Danube to the Elbe. 

JOHN L. STODDARD. 



SCRIBES, PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES, COWARDS, LIARS. 55 

A writer in "The London New Age," who says that his "name is one that has been 
somewhat distinguished in Scotland for centuries," says: 

"There is a lamentable lack of originality among the atrocity mongers. Each and 
all, when driven into a corner by plain facts, or plain questions, betake themselves to personal 
abuse. 

"I do not hate England, but I do hate the modern English spirit as interpreted by the 
English gutter Press. I know that the spirit of chivalry and fairness survives in thousands 
of Englishmen, but they are of no more account than the righteous in Sodom. Many men 
whom I know personally have written to the Press, asking, as I have done, for decency and 
fair play; and they have either had their letters dropped into the waste-paper basket, or 
have been abused as I have been. 

"Such a sentence as the following: 'The great mass of women and men In Germany 
are half mad with eagerness to set fire to the streets of London, and to murder wholesale 
unarmed women, children, and men,' is not only a disgrace to the Englishman who wrote it, 
and the English paper which published it; it disgraces England as a nation. 

"After the Press, comes a flight of authors and rhymesters, spitting out venom, and 
Incidentally destroying any literary reputation which they may possess; and even the leaders 
of the people and the State are degrading the country by their currishness. The corres- 
pondent of an American paper recently accused the Press censor of deliberately erasing 
any news favorable to Germans, and inserting atrocity stories. I believe that the charge 
has not been contradicted. The Archbishop of York is having stones thrown at him because 
he has spoken of a personal friendship with the Kaiser in the past. Because we are at war 
with Germany it is improper to mention the head of the German nation without a curse or a 
foul name. I emphatically hate such things. It is truly the greatest tragedy that the world 
has ever seen, BUT THE DEGRADING METHODS USED BY THE ENGLISH PRESS ADD 
TO ITS HORROR. To pile the whole guilt upon the shoulders of one man, ignoring that of 
the whole of the nations now at war, is an infamy. Future history will distribute the guilt in 
its proper proportions, but that does not excuse any fair-minded man remaining silent in face 
of the Pharisaical attitude of Britain. " 

Hear James O'Donnell Bennett, of the Chicago Tribune : 

"Certainly the Germans are getting a rotten deal from the rest of the world In the^ 
press reports of this war. I hope America will not be inflamed by those reports with the 
idea that it ought 'in the name of humanity' to mix up in the trouble. 

"But a man who failed to write what I have seen and heard in Germany would be a 
dog. 

"I came to Germany anti-German. So did John McCutcheon. But London lies and 
German dignity and solidity have about brought me over to the German side. 

"If America thinks Germany is in the leat frightened, or if America thinks Germany 
has gone mad with blood lust, then America has only surrendered to the most stupendous 
campaign of lies that has been launched from Europe since Napoleon made his 'false as a 
bulletin' a proverb." 

A FINE BUNCH OF 'EM. 

First General Emmich after "wasting" the lives of 45,000 Germans before Liege, 
committed "suicide." The fact that he conquered an almost impregnable fortress with small 
loss of hfe after a few days Liege was never brought out in the dispatches of the All-lies. 
Even to this day many American readers are under the impression that the gallant general 
is dead. This belief, needless to say, is not shared by the general. After that we are told, 
that a troop of German soldiers shot at themselves in Louvain and that the city was destroyed 
to cover up this blunder. We also heard that one hundred German Socialist leaders were 
shot by the Kaiser and that one hundred Polish leaders met a similar fate in Austria. We 
realize some, including the Socialist leader Dr. Franke, were shot, but at the front, and by 
the enemy. The last piece of "news" made to order in St. Petersburg informs us that one 
portion of the German navy attacked another portion in the Baltic, and that several ships 
were sunk in the ensuing engagement which lasted several hours. How long will American 
readers permit the newspapers to feed them such pap? The capture of Maubeuge when 
reported by way of Sayville was denied again and again in official reports from Paris and 
London. It was not until the 19th of September that the German dispatch was verified by 
London." — Fatherland. 

AN ENGLISHER. 

England does not yet realize the stupendous gravity of her military task in fighting 
Germany. "The terrible nature of the war she is engaged upon" is scarcely grasped by 
Enghshmen. "The silly prattle" which fills the newspapers with descriptions of cockney 
valor "is unworthy of the London press," says Austin Harrison in "The English Review" (Lon- 
don). To quote further: 



56 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

"Ink-pot gibes at the Germans won't help anybody. We are fighting the most scien- 
tifically equipped army ever seen in war. We are fighting the largest and most redoubtable 
foe in all history, and every Englishman ought to know it. We are fighting the applied mil- 
itary brains of five decades. All the more honor to us when we beat them." 

DEAR OLD PETROGRAD. 

War Myths. 

Once more It is announced — this time from Petrograd — that the Prussian Guard Corps 
has been wiped out. Only a week or so ago it was reported to have been annihilated by the 
English at Ypres. The newspapers have killed or seriously injured the German Crown 
Prince in half a dozen different places. They have several times retired von Moltke, the 
German Chief of Staff, in disgrace. — Bullard in "Outlook." 

TOOK THE CRAMP. 

When Von Hindenberg got them in the marshes that first time the facts were with- 
held lor quite a while. Through German sources finally the news percolated that 93,000 
prisoners had been taken. Finally, it became known that the dead alone totaled 150,000. At 
length one New York newspaper printed an account of an eye witness of the battle: 

"The Russian position was practically this: On the outside the land sloped up 
toward the surrounding enemy; on the inside was a network of swamps and lakes; on the 
fourth side escape was only possible through swamps and boggy streams. Then followed 
one of the most frightful battles of history, a battle which caused some of the German 
officers to go mad from its very horror. The Germans closed in, concentrating a terrible fire 
on the Russians, who were unable to maneuver their guns which sank in the mud. Horses 
and men became embogged. The nature of the region caused the Russians to break up 
into helpless groups, many of which forced their way further and further into the awful 
swamps." 

"The Sun" was the only paper to print this description and the readers of the other 
papers remained in ignorance of one of the most terrible scenes of warfare in human history 
and a Russian disaster of unparalleled magnitude. 

It may be imagined what kind of public opinion is formed when the truth is thus 
suppressed. — Fatherland. 

THOUGHT THEY DIDN'T HAVE ANY HUMANIY. 

The New York Times continues to give prominence to statements of the German 
Humanity League, declaring that Austria is tired of the war and anxious to make separate 
peace. The German Humanity League is a fake. It has no existence, and is the work of 
British agents at Rotterdam. — Fatherland. 



THE AMERICAN PRESS. 

By Dr. A. B. Faust, Cornell University, in Fatherland. 

"A few weeks ago, the question might well be asked, is this country neutral 
or is it at war? If the latter had been our unfortunate plight, the editorials of 
our newspapers could not have been more passionate and prejudicial. There arose 
in consequence a huge wave of indignation among the masses of German-Amer- 
ican citizens throughout the country. What was their grievance? It could not 
be that they objected to sympathy shown for France or Eng and by people of 
those national stocks? No, it was the wide circulation of slanders, libels, and 
lies, which were passed on as news. The torture of prisoners taken by the Ger- 
mans; the murder of Danish children who shouted for France; the barbarous 
treatment of American citizens by Germans; indignities shown ambassadors on 
leaving Berlin; fictions such as these under glaring head-lines were published by 
the leading American dailies some of whom claim to give only the news that is 
lit to print. No wonder that from the Atlantic to the Pacific the Germans with 
a voice of thunder declaimed against such villifications of their national char- 
acter!" 

******** 

Yes, the Pro-British American Press has held its own fairly well. Listen at 
this from an American in America, Halleday Witherspoon, correspondent of the 
Boston Journal. He hits the nail on the head. The truth is these papers that are 



SCRIBES, PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES, COWARDS, LIARS. 



57 




Hy. Mayer in "Puck." 

unsubsidized helped kindle a fire they can't quench, however much they might 
wish to do so. 

Another paper finds that a pro-German headline of the mildest sort can be depended 
on to reduce the next day's circulation by a thousand copies. Can you conceive of a rottener 
state of affairs? Of course the newspapers are responsible themselves. They dashed into this 
business with a scratch judgment that Germany was all wrong-; and having swung the 
people around to that idea, haven't the courage to reverse themselves to the exient of telling 
even a part of the truth. I recognize the fact that we are a stupid people; that we are an 
ignorant people; that we are impulsive; that we like to let some one else do our thinking 
for us. I know that a newspaper has to run with both eyes on the business office. 

"But with all our belch and bellyache about a free press I have liked to think that 
on a big issue most of our papers would be glad to tell the truth at the expense of circula- 
tion; that there was decency enough among the American people to listen to the truth 
without wanting to lynch the teller." 

THE OLD GAME. 

As in 1870-71 so in his war the German government publishes complete and correct 
lists of those killed and wounded in battle. The first of these documents of death and destruc- 
tion, which includes all losses up to August 18th inclusive, shows 1500 killed and 700 injured. 
One of our editors, whose mind runs to figures, has added up all the Germans killed (in the 
local newspapers) during the time indicated and he finds 1,200,000! — New Yorker Herrold. 

So the great Russian victory — "the greatest of a century" — which established the 
Russian Grand Duke in highest command as "a second Napoleon" (according to the New 
York headline newsmongers), has turned out one of the worst Russian disasters in the 
campaign. General Hindenberg for the third time (that was several months ago, too), proved 
that Russian numbers are no match for German strategy, German soldiers and German intel- 
ligence. Another 100,000 unwounded Russian prisoners were taken in two weeks of fighting. — 
Fatherland. 

CAN'T COUNT HIM. 

The New York Herald prints an open letter attacking the German Emperor, by "Count" 
Erik Vanbergen who claims to be a German. No such person is known in Germany, nor 
have our diligent researches in the Almanach de Gotha disclosed the identity of this "Count." 

CAN'T MUCH BLAME HIM. 

On September 23 came news that the Germans had destroyed three British cruisers 
in the North Sea with a loss of 1,200 men. The next morning there appeared in the New 
York papers a column cable dispatch of an interview with the chief gunner of the ill-fated 
"Cressy." He related circumstantially an amazing achievement of his gunners in sinking 
two out of five German submarines. YET ONLY ONE GERMAN SUBMARINE WAS EN- 
GAGED,— THE U-9. 



STRAY SHOT. 

In a letter to James Monroe, January 1, 1815, Thomas Jefferson scathingly 
denounced what he termed "the slanders and falsehoods disseminated by the 
English papers." 



58 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

Englishmen have always boasted of their sportsmanship and their nice sense of 
honor. Of course this pretty conceit has been pricked for centuries by those nationalities 
which have had dealings with John Bull. All the same the world was shocked by the 
announcement that England would nullify all German and Austro-Hungarian patent rights 
now held by Great Britain's Teutonic adversaries. — Fatherland. 

The future definition of England will be: "Earth's great Island of Lies; 
Surrounded on all sides by the filthy water of Hypocrisy." 

I have several hundred pages more of such delectable stuff, but will have to 
desist. I can't close, however, without tailing it off with two samples of what 
might properly be termed 

RECENT FICTION. 

Vance Thompson, in the N. Y. Sun: 

"Comes swaggering in the Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria; he has just had his 
sabre sharpened and girt his abdomen for war. His wife runs to him. AND SHE KISSES 
THE SABRE AND SHOUTS, "BRING IT BACK TO ME COVERED WITH BLOOD— THAT 
I MAY KISS IT AGAIN." 

The Crown Prince's wife had been dead more than two years at the time of 
the alleged incident. 

******** 

Arnold Bennett in the Saturday Evening Post creates a dreadful militaristic 
"General von Edelsheim, a Member of the German General Staff." No such gen- 
eral ever existed in Germany. 

******** 

Newspaper headlines: (Great big, black letters). "Lodz Absolutely Impreg- 
nable." Four days later, down in southeast corner of ad. page (smallest type 
possible.) "Lodz purposely evacuated by the Russians solely for strategic 
reasons." 

(Big Black Type) "POWERFUL GERMAN CRUISER SENT ROARING TO 
OCEAN'S BOTTOM BY BRITISH FLEET; ABSOLUTELY NO BRITISH LOSS." 
Five days later (smallest type possible.) Admiralty admit Dreadnaught Lion, 
the Flagship, and one or two smaller craft were so disabled they had to be towed 
to port. Not over 20 or 30 killed, however. In the last few days, Arnold White in 
the London Daily Express criticised the British censorship and admitted that the 
English cruiser Glasgow was lost in the battle of Coronel on the Chilean coast, 
and that England lost a large battle cruiser in the battle in which the Bluecher 
was sunk. 

THE CENSORSHIP. 

Arthus Bullard, the strongly-biased Anti-German war expert of the utterly 
purblind pro-British Outlook, says in that able but misled magazine : 

But the prime stupidity so far has been the work of the British censor in regard to 
the fate of the super-dreadnought "Audacious." Why was the news suppressed? The fact 
that the secret was kept so long is the thing which makes it hardest to believe. It is 
treating the English public as if they were children. Under such circumstances, confident 
reliance on the reports published hy the xVdmiralty is impossible. And as long as this 
uncertainty exists every one is asking: How many other of the important British ships have 
been lost without our knowledge?" 

And Echo answers: "How many more?" 
Says the rabid pro-British A^. Y. World: 

"Cablegram's from the 'World's' correspondents in Germany are systematically held 
up in London by the censor, although the news contained in them could by no possibility 
prejudice British military operations. Even news which the tightly drawn German censor- 
ship allows to pass is deliberately smothered by the British censors. If this news hurt any- 
body in a military way it would hurt the Germans; but it is the British who are suppressing 
it. 

"The American people ought to know that one of the principal reasons why they 
are not receiving fuller reports from the German side of the war is because the British 
censorship will not permit it. * * * * * Great Britain has made many things contraband of 
war, which were not regarded as contraband of war when this conflict began." 



SCRIBES, PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES, COWARDS, LIARS. 59 

Says Sydney Brooks, the bright and discriminating English author in the 
December North American Review. 

"Urbane fatuity has rarely, I suppose, been carried further in any goveniment 
department than in the British Press Bureau and by the half-pay officers who were installed 
at his orders in the cable companies' offices. These wondrous g-entlemen simply blue-penciled 
everything- that came before them. They censored the Prime Minister's speeches and Sir 
Edward Grey's, the King-'s messages to India and the Dominions, and even the official 
pronouncements of the Press Bureau itself." 

"The Earl Leven wounded, eh?" said the young lieutenant of a Dorsetshire reg-iment 
on my right; "is that all they have?" (Leven's was for days the only casualty made public.) 
"We're rather well cut up, too. Five officers and 240 men alive out of a thousand in that 
business around Vicq." — Rob't Dunn, in N. Y. Evening Post, 

WHICH LIES? 

When the London Foreign Office declared that Japan had come into the contest 
against the protest of England the Japanese statesman Kato gave it the lie, asserting in the 
Japanese parliament that Japan had declared war against Germany at the request of the 
English government, and that Japan was duly bound by its alliance. — Fatherland. 



CHAPTER V. 

MILITARISM 

Perhaps the oldest and certainly the most far-fetched and preposterous line 
of lies that England has been doping the world with is German Militarism. And 
that is sure to be her final refuge in the present w^ar; for, the ofiicial documents 
which are now getting into general circulation , are dead sure to blow up and 
obliterate the Belgium neutrality Violation subterfuge, the breast-works behind 
which she first took refuge. Hence, it may be w^ell to treat German Militarism 
somewhat fully. 

Militarism means inordinate military preparation, not for purposes of self- 
defense but solely for purposes of aggression. We can all recall how our Amer- 
ican papers, (particularly the Sunday editions) and magazines for the past 10 
years have been deluging us with German Militarism and lierce-looking pictures 
of the War Lord. I soon saw it had all the ear-marks of being inspired— so sys- 
tematic, business-like, and incessant was the propaganda; and after awhile I 
cut it out. But I can easily see how it must have affected the minds of those who 
knew nothing of the arts of the Press Agent. 

Now, to start with: it was a cheap lie when they pretended the Emperor's 
ofiicial title, the Kreigs Herr, meant War Lord. Its intrinsic meaning is 
"Commander-in-Chief," — just as President Wilson is, by express designation in 
our Federal Constitution, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the 
United States. The Emperor hasn't even as much military command as our Presi- 
dent. He couldn't personally have instituted a war as Wilson did against Huerta. 
Except when German territory is actually attacked he can't declare war without 
the consent of the Bundesrat. He doesn't even become absolute Commander-in- 
Chief until the consent of the different states which form the Empire has been 
obtained for the declaration of war. He doesn't even draw a salary either as 
Emperor or Commander-in-Chief, his official remuneration appertaining only to 
his office as Ruler of the State of Prussia. All war measures must be passed by 
the Reichstag, a body elected under a more liberal ballot law than that for our 
President. So it would be harder for a War Lord to drag Germany into any war 
the people didn't want than to drag the U. S. into such a war. 

But, you say, the War Lord (for you are going to keep on applying the mis- 
nomer anyhow), the ferocious War Lord has built up an atmosphere of militarism 
around the German people, and has gotten them saturated with dreams of aggres- 
sion and conquest. Interesting, even pertinent, if true; but wholly untrue. As 
to the Emperor himself. Just look at his picture when he was crowned, and four 
years after, and now. The two first indicate he was a poet, a dreamer. The 
last, shows him a Grandfather, with all the serene satisfaction of having given to 
the world those dear little hostages of Peace. He is past 56 years old — a gray- 
haired grandfather. As the (U. S.) Army and Navy Journal so pungently says: 

"A gray-haired grandfather does not seek military glory. Emperft)rs at his age, in the his- 
tory of the world generally, have already established their reputations and have been content 
to pass the remaining years of their reign in peace." 

By their works ye shall kno wtheni. Hear Wilhelm speaking April 24, 1901, 
to the students of the University of Bonn, when the Emperor's oldest son, the 
Crown Prince Friederich Wilhelm, entered the university: 

"You will have to do your share of the work for its safety and development, and you are 
here to prepare yourselves for this work. The Empire ^.ands before you; it is thriving glori- 
ously. Let joy and gratitude fill your hearts; and may you glow with the firm and manly re- 
solve to work for Germany as Germans and to lift her and strengthen her! The future is 
waiting for you. It will test your strength. Do not waste it in cosmopolitan dreams, or in 
one-sided party service, but exert it to make stable the national idea and to foster the noblest 
thoughts. 



MILITARISM. 61 

The spiritual heroes whom God's grace permitted the German race to produce, from Boni- 
face and Walther von der Vogelweide, to Goethe and Schiller are great. They have given light 
and have been a blessing to all mankind. Their work was unversal, but they were Germans 
in the strictest sense, they were well-defined personalities, and in short, men! Men we need 
today more than ever. May you too strive to be men! 

"How is this possible? Who can show you the way? There is only one whose name we 
all bear, who has borne our sins and blotted them out, who has shown us by His life and work 
how we shall live and work, our Lord and Savior. May He sow into your hearts moral seri- 
ousness, that your motives may be pure and your aims high. Love of father and mother, of 
home and fatherland, depends on love of Him. If you have this you will be proof against all 
temptations, especially against pride and envy, and will be able to sing and say, 'We Ger- 
mans fear God and naught else in the world.' " 

Now that's teaching Militarism with a vengeance, eh? And this on his re- 
turn from Palestine: 

"I am free to say that I have had many and varied experiences of an elevating nature in 
that country, partly religious, partly historical, and partly also, connected with modern life. 
My most inspiring experience, however, next to the service in our own church, was to stand 
on the Mount of Olives and see the spot at its base where the greatest struggle of the world 
was fought — by the One Man — for the redemption of mankind. This realization induced me 
to renew on that day my oath of allegiance, as it were, to God on high. I swore to do my 
very best to knit my people together and to destroy whatever could disintegrate them." 

And this to his sons Oscar and August on their joining the church: 

"There is only one advice I can give you for your life, and I give it with all my heart. 
Work and labor incessantly. This is the substance of the Christian life. Look to your Bible 
and read the parables of our Savior. The indolent man who remains inactive, satisfied to 
swim with the tide and to have other people work for him, is most severely punished, as is 
told in the parable of the pounds. Whatever your preferences or your talents may be, let each 
one of you endeavor to do his very best in his own sphere and to become a personality, to 
grow in the performance of his duties, to be active, and to follow the example of our Savior." 

So very War-Lordy, eh? 

But, you crushingly reply, a man is not to be judged mainly by his words: 
Wilhelm, while uttering words of peace, has been doing works of war, viz.: 
building up a big military establishment. True, so has Uncle Sam. But, you 
urge, Uncle Sam does it not for aggression but for peace or, if war has to come, 
for self-defense. Exactly, so did Wilhelm; — for that and nothing more. 

But, you persist: Wilhelm makes the military almost paramount. No, he only 
makes it next to paramount, that is to save the paramount thing, the Government 
itself. But, it demoralizes the youth with the spirit of militarism, eh? Not if 
the English writer. Dr. Levi M. Powers, knows what he is talking about when he 
says in the Gloucester Times, September 12th, 1914: 

"The German boy at sixteen or seventeen is a spindle-shanked prig. By the time the 
army is through with him he is physically the best developed man of Europe, democratised 
by contact with all classes. Because of her army Germany is a nation physically disciplined, 
and taught as no other people the value and meaning of law and order." 

That sort of military training is really a great moral factor, and its a pity 
we don't have more of it over here. The truth of the business is the German 
youth has sense enough, under intelligent instruction and appropriate environ- 
ment, to grasp readily the meaning of his military requirements (Something 
American writers seem unable to do), viz.: that he is preparing himself, if occa- 
sion requires, to defend the Fatherland with all it stands for against destruction. 
His work thus becomes one of personal consecration and tends to tremendously 
enlarge his spiritual development. 

But, Germany spends so much on it, eh? No, not near so much in proportion 
as the rest. What grinds their very gizzards is that Germany gets so much more 
in proportion for what she spends than they do. A maximum of results for a 
minimum of outlay. This, however, is due to the superior efficiency and honesty 
of the German character. 



62 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

Now, here in round numbers, is how the first class powers spent their money 
last year on their respective military establishments, that is their armies and 
navies: 

Great Britain $448,440,000 

(And mind you $224,300,000 of 
this was for the Army.) 

Russia 440,300,000 

France 311,000,000 

Germany 294,000,000 

(These huge expenditures by Russia and France were greater in proportion 
than in previous years, although they were surely great enough for such innocent 
unmilitarism countries in previous years. For instance, in the typical year of 1911, 

Germany spent about $299,880,000 

Russia spent about 306,068,000 

France spent about 250,138,000 

Militaristic Germany's expenditures had lessened. Why had the expenditures 
of innocent peace-hankering Russia and France so astoundingly increased? 
Thereby hangs a tale — to be told in Chapter VIII. They were getting ready for 
something: Goin' ter be somethin' doin', eh? 

So, we find Germany spending only $294,000,000 last year on her army and 
navy (only $60,000,000 more than Uncle Sam — you didn't know U. S. was such a 
bloomin' militarist, eh?); whereas her combined enemies spent $1,159,700,000 — 
about four times as much! Kinder staggering, isn't it? Makes the case look 
slightly different, don't it, honest Injun? With few mountain ranges to protect 
her, Germany had only 870,000 men under arms, while her avowed enemies, 
France (720,000) and Russia (1,290,000) had over 2,000,000— nearly three to one. 
You didn't know that before, did you, honest reader? 

Now, a German wouldn't have claimed ( that is, before the war — it has turned 
out that he might justly have done so) that he w^as equal to three Russians or to 
three Frenchmen. Dead sure a Russian or a Frenchman wouldn't have conceded 
(and won't even do it now) that a German was worth 3 to 1 or even 2 to 1, or even 
1 1-2 to 1. What, then, did this enormous disproportion mean, particularly with 
the added fact of the feverish increase since 1911? Why, of course, honest reader, 
you are intelligent enough to see it — it is as plain as the nose on your face: Ger- 
many w-as providing for self-defense; Russia and France for Aggression, Mili- 
tarism. 

And why should Germany care for war in any event? She was prospering 
under her existing regime beyond the dream of avarice. Her trade was con- 
quering the world. She was capturing market after market; until the mere enum- 
eration would grow monotonous. Quoting Von Mach in "What Germany Wants": 
"They were building up one trade here, another there, and trying to win the confidence 
of the people everywhere. Some of the biggest enterprises had to reckon with a settled fu- 
ture, for a first assignment of goods is often attended by great expenditures of advertising 
and other overhead charges. . . . The great army leaders are brothers or fathers of the 

men who stand high in the commercial world 

"There is not such a thing in Germany as a military clique, out of sympathy with and 
opposed to the great masses of the people. Nor could there be, because the future lay bright 
before the Germans for just so long as they could retain peace. Those who doubt this as- 
sertion should ask themselves which European nation had been the undoubted gainer during- 
the past forty years? In population Germany had grown to be fifty per cent, larger than 
the United Kingdom, and about seventy-five per cent, larger than France. In commerce it 
had advanced from almost the last place among the big nations to the. second place, easily 
outstripping France and even forging ahead of the United States in bulk of imports and ex- 
ports, although the United States has a world monopoly in cotton. The German rate of in- 
crease from 1888 to 1912 was 204 per cent., while the rate of the United Kingdom was only 
100.7 per cent." 

So it is preposterous to assume that Germany wished aggression. Prosperity 
doesn't want to risk war. It has already what it wants. 

THE WHYS AND WHEREFORES. 
But, you ask, why does Germany spend anything? It is answer enough to ask, 
why do the others? The higher figures put the burden of proof on them. The 



MILITARISM. 63 

prima facie case is against them. Of course we all know of the historical facts. 
France hated Germany for taking back from her Alsace-Lorraine (and erroneously, 
as Chapter VIII will indicate, probably believed Germany had further designs on 
her) and nursed her hatred, keeping it always hot, and teaching the children the 
Doctrine of the Revanche (Revenge.) 

Any intelligent American who kept his ears open while visiting in France in 
the last 40 years will testify to that. Russia had designs 1st on Austria. Though 
inextricably mongrel, Russia calls herself Slav, because the Slav element predomi- 
nates. Austria is part Slav. Russia wants all Slavs to belong to Russia, (or, as it is 
diplomatically expressed, to be under Russian inlluence.) This is the doctrine of 
Pan-Slavism. But such would mean the ruin of Austria, as she would be shorn of 
her strength. Austria also wished even more Slavs — she, unlike Russia, seemed to 
get along pretty well with those she had. So, in brief, both Russia and Austria 
wished to extend their inlluences into the Balkans, a perfectly legitimate ambition 
on the part of each, but one bound to eventuate sooner or later in a clash of arms. 

Germany also had a legitimate ambition for inlluence in the East. Moreover, 
a goodly part of Austria was composed of Germans. So Germany and Austria be- 
came Allies, and, later, Russia and France. 

Now, then, the 2nd step of Pan-Slavism (absolutely logical and unescapeable) 
after uniting all the Slavs, would have been the conquest of their contiguous racial 
antagonists and trade competitors. So, even if Austria had peacefully ceded her 
Slavs to Russia and had become a part of Germany, the Teuton Race, would have 
faced the prospect of extinction. 

So, Germany had more than cause enough to spend at least one-half of what 
her combined known enemies spent on armament. (All this while Germany never 
suspected England, her own blood kin was in the conspiracy of her enemies. Such 
a suspicion was abhorrent, utterly inconceivable.) Added to this practical, pres- 
ent reason for keeping well armed, Germany had sense enough to remember: how, 
in the past, while she was not united and armed, her country had for centuries 
been the very cock-pit of Europe; during the "Thirty Years War," at the end of 
which time only one-sixth of her inhabitants were left, (it was at the end of this 
that Louis XIV stole Alsace-Lorraine); Frederick the Great's "Seven Years' War;" 
the long wars with Napoleon; and the more modern conflicts, culminating in the 
victory over France and getting back Alsace-Lorraine in the war of 1870. 

Since that war, Germany, the Moloch of Militarism, has never had a war; 
while of those incarnated exponents of the quintessent Core-Principle of Peace, 
since 1870, England has conquered and annexed Egypt, the Boers, Southern Persia, 
and part of Siam. France has conquered Tunis, is still fighting Morocco, has 
fought Madagascar, tried to take the Soudan, and has conquered Indo-China. 
Russia, as Dr. Dernberg tersely puts it: "has fought the Turks in 1878, the Japanese 
in 1904, has torn northern Manchuria and Mongolia from China, has made war on 
Turkestan, has bagged northern Persia, and formed and fomented the Balkan com- 
bination." 

How about that historical contrast, honest reader? 

But enough, it is an insult to argue that phase of the question further. But 
there is another class who "will not be comforted." 

Mr. Oswald Garrison Villard, the very brilliant author and very strong Anti- 
German in the present war, represents this peculiar psychological type in Amer- 
ica. He is a man of wealth, acquired I take it, by dint of personal ability, in the 
field of fierce mental competition. Yet, he doesn't recognize the fundamental prin- 
ciple of competition. His mind is not elastic enough to apply the palpable analogy 
of his own experience, the making the means to preserve himself in competition 
with others in the same field, to the other departments of life, particularly to 
Government itself. In other words, brilliant as he is, up to a certain limit, subject 
as he is to the inexorable operation of the very law; yet he doesn't see the great 
law of Evolution that pervades the universe and that is carrying him himself along 
with it. His limitation is such that he can't stop to say to himself: I have made 
good; but, oh, what a struggle to do it! How I have had to FIGHT with my wits 
against others who competed with me in my field! Who grappled with me to get 
what I got or take it away from me after I got it. If I hadn't been successful I 



64 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

would have starved; I could not have PRESERVED MYSELF. He confuses a 
MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT made by Government to insure its own chance to 
grow in culture and to prosper ,in other words, its own SELF-PRESERVATION, 
with MILITARISM, a barbarous military machine made by semi-savages purposely 
and solely for aggression. 

It is impossible for such minds to see how imperative it is at this stage of the 
world's Evolution for a government to provide for its self-defense. Their theory, 
logically applied, would mean total disarmament at once, even by our own United 
States on the theory that if the Millennium ain't here it ought to be, if men ain't 
uncovetous and perfect, they ought to be, if nations are not innocently undesign- 
ing they surely ought to be; therefore, we are in no danger, we can evolve our cul- 
ture to the last limit without fear of molestation, and it is both barbarous and 
wasteful to keep up a military establishment. Whenever that crowd gets in the 
majority, (and they seem to be growing pretty rapidly, thanks to "Canny" Andy's 
largesse,) Good-bye America! Those of us who still have the instinct of national 
self-preservation, had better pack our trunks and migrate to some land of hated 
militarism. 

Mr. Villard takes refuge in the proposition that if the money that goes to sup- 
port the German military establishment were spent in economic investments, 
and if no attention were paid to military matters, more factories could be built 
and more essays on culture written, and more dilettante pictures painted. Quite 
true, — provided their iie.glibors would let 'em. We know they wouldn't; but it is 
useless to argue with the Villard psychology on this point — for, 

"E'en though vanquished they can argue still." 

It is, therefore, "all Dutch" to Mr. Villard when, as he expresses it in February 
Scribners, in a handsomely written article: 

"Ninety-three German savants who pledged their honor and reputations to the truth of 
their statements have recently declared that German militarism is one and indivisible with 
German Culture. 'Without it,' they said, 'oui culture would long since have been wiped off 
the earth.' .... "Imitating the 93 savants, 3,000 German teachers in universities and 
schools of technology have put their names to the statement that there is no other spirit in 
the army save that of the nation; that the spirit of German knowledge and militarism are 
the same; that the Germany Army and the German Universities are identical in their aspir' 
ation, since both are devoted to science." 

In plain English they simply say: "What military establishment we have, 
we keep solely to defend our country; and we thus feel safe, and feel justified in 
putting our utmost energies, and time, and talents into the development of culture. 
Every savant, every industrialist, every boy goes into the army absolutely imbued 
with that spirit. It thus amounts to a vast, systematic, national consecration to 
the holiest of causes, the intelligently arranged for preservation of national culture 
at a minimum of individual sacrifice." 

Of course, the Peace-at-any-pricers like Mr. Villard sees it all "as through a 
glass darkly." Whittled to a point, their whole contention is this: it is not an 
absolutely perfect system in some of its (utterly negligible) incidents. In peace 
times, as in the United States, the privates do some hazing, the officers strut, dis- 
ciplinary measures seem unduly harsh; while at all times the General StafT has 
more or less autocratic authority within its peculiar province (just exactly as it 
must have in any scientific military system. I predict that in the next three years 
every government worth saving will have some such autocratic General Staff after 
the German pattern.) Now, if any other country without any military establish- 
ment has surpassed Germany either in industrial or ethical culture, the Germans 
will be glad to change their system. Name such a country. 

But Mr. Villard, while he can see no point in this position; yet, in that hand- 
somely written article in February Scribners, is broad and fair enough to con- 
cede himself out of court after all, thusly : 

"Germans are today thanking God for their militarism, on the ground that but for it Na- 
poleon would never have been humbled and the German Empire would never have come to 
pass; that to its extent and thoroughness alone Germany owes her safety at this hour, when 
she is beset by the troops of nearly half the world, but has thus far carried on the war al- 
most entirely on other people's soil. 



MILITARISM. 



65 



"The Germany army is a democracy; because, within its regiments are men of every 
rank and caste, of every grade of learning and every degree of poverty and wealth. It Is 
democratic because it is compulsory and because it spares no one. No amount of pull or 
power can free a German from his one year or more of service. Thus, when the call to arms 
came on the 4th of August it was literally an uprising of the people. The great wave of 
emotion which exalted the whole nation gained its impetus because men of every class went 
forth, singing, to die. Barriers of all kinds were levelled; in the enthusiasm of that tre- 
mendous hour, caste and rank were, for the moment, forgotten. The entire citizenship was. 
drawn together by the levelling influence of devotion to a single cause. For the moment all 
Germany was a democracy. 

"In the trenches today lie side by side, as common soldiers or non-commissioned officers, 
men, who have made their mark in the field of learning, of science, of business, of the skilled 
professions. 

"There is similarly no discrimination among regiments when war is on. It makes no dif- 
ference if every officer in it is of ancient and noble lineage. The Guards are reported to have 
been among the heaviest losers in the present war, precisely as at St. Privat in 1870, when 
five battalions lost every officer and were fighting under their sergeants when the day was- 
won. It is just the same with the Kaiser's younger sons; they have gone into actual welter 
of battle exactly as if offspring of the humblest Westphalian peasant. That the privilege of 
dying as the German General Staff wills belongs to princes as much as to anybody else i» 
attested by the death of Lieutenant-General Frederic, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen, a brother- 
in-law of the Kaiser's sister, and of other notables. 

"But the brief for the democracy of the Germany army does not end here. It enforces,, 
so its adherents claim, a fine standard of personal conduct, of physical vigor, and of loyalty- 
to King and country throughout the nation. The army takes the humblest conscript, how- 
ever ignorant and lacking in self-respect, and turns him out a decent, healthy citizen with 
a fine physique, excellent carriage, inured to heavy burdens, long marches, and absolute 
obedience. If he is a dull clodhopper from a Polish province, unable to speak German, the 
recruit is taught the King's language and how to write it; he learns as Kipling puts it, to- 
"wash behind his ears," how to eat, how to walk, how to keep himself scrupulously clean, 
and how to think for himself. 

"The great lesson of subordination to authority is thus learned, and in many cases self- 
restraint, as a result of methods which are applied just as rigorously to the son of a million- 
aire as of an aristocrat. The natural German love of outdoors and of exercise in the open 
is intensified by service with the colors; a genuine comradeship with men in all walks of life 
springs up, and with it comes the a.bility to feel as a German, to think in terms of the na- 
tion, whose patriotic songs one and all sing as they march, for singing is a wise require- 
ment of the German military training. Certainly, as the English military reports have so 
generously attested, this training teaches men to face certain death for the Fatherland with 
a devotion never surpassed by Occidentals and equalling the stoical and fatalistic pursuance- 
of death by Orientals." 




De Mar in "Philladelphia Record 



May in "Cleveland Leader." 
Damon and Pythias ran a mere s de show. 



66 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 




V^ 




The Terrible War Lord. 

Here we have him. Look at the dreadful ogre. Upper left, at the time he be- 
came Emperor. Upper right, four years after. Upper middle, two healthy young 
rompers, his grandchildren. Lower right, writing at Corfu in his American straw 
hat. Lower left, with one of his grandchildren, right now. And what a look on 
that good face! What a serene light in that eye, "The light that never was on sea 
or land;" the light that can only come to those who have given offspring and 
raised them well as hostages to the peace and progress of the world. 



MILITARISM. 67 

The base..!, brutalest, most despicable crusade of calumny has been the per- 
sistent personal misrepresentation and caricatures of the Kaiser by English writers 
and lampooners. They have poisoned almost the whole English speaking world 
against a good, in fact, a most noble character, one most highly useful to the world 
in his day and generation. This crusade will ,in my judgment, be regarded by the 
future historian as a true index of the present innate brutality of British bureau- 
ocracy and the coarse fibre of the literary hacks who are its hucksters 

The American people were beginning, however, to see the Kaiser as he was 
and is, as evidenced by the two typical cartoons on p. 05, drawn just a few short 
months before the war, referring to his quarter of a century of uninterrupted 
peace when, lo, his whole life record is made to appear naught by the English 
calumniators and he is completely metamorphosed in the twinkling of an eye — 
aye, transmogrified into earth's most hideous monster. 

Hear his justly indignant rebuke to his English kin, in his famous Daily Mail 
interview in 1908: 

"You English," he said, "are mad, mad, mad as March hares. What has come over you 
that you are so completely given over to suspicions unworthy of a great nation? What 
more can I do than I have done? I declared with all the emphasis at my command, in my 
speech at Guildhall, that my heart is set upon peace, and that it is one of my dearest wishes 
to live on the best terms with England. Have I ever been false to my word? Falsehood and 
prevarication are alien to my nature. My actions ought to speak for themselves, but you listen 
not to them but to those who misinterpret and distort them. That is a personal insult which 
I feel and resent. To be forever misjudged, to have my repeated offers of friendship weighed 
and scrutinized with jealous, mistrustful eyes, taxes my patience severely. I have said time 
after time that I am a friend of England, and your Press — or at least a considerable section 
of it — bids the people of England refuse my proffered hand, and insinuates that the other 
holds a dagger. How can I convince a nation against its will?" 

"I repeat," continued His Majesty, "that I am the friend of England, but you make things 
difficult for me. My task is not of the easiest. The prevailing sentiment among large sectiions 
of the middle and lower classes of my own people is not friendly to England. I am, therefore, 
so to speak, in a minority in my own land, but it is a minority of the best elements, just as- 
it is in England with respect to Germany. That is another reason why I resent your refusal 
to accept my pledged word that I am the friend of England. I strive without ceasing to im- 
prove relations, and you retort that I am your arch-enemy. You make it very hard for me. 
Why is it?" . . . "There are mischief makers in both countries. I will not attempt to 
weigh their relative capacity for misrepresentation. But the facts are as I have stated. 
There has been nothing in Germany's recent actron with regard to Morocco which runs con- 
trary to the explicit declaration of my love of peace which I made at Guildhall and in my 
latest speech at Strassburg." 

His Majesty then reverted to the subject uppermost in his mind — his prored friendship 
for England. "I have referred," he said, "to the speeches In which I have done all that a 
sovereign can to proclaim my good will. But as actions speak louder than words, let me 
also refer to my acts. It is commonly believed in England that throughout the South Af- 
rican War Germany was hostile to her. German opinion undoubtedly was hostile — bitterly 
hostile. The Press was hostile; private opinion was hostile. But what o? official Germany? 
Let my critics ask themselves what brought to a sudden stop, and, indeed, to absolute col- 
lapse, the European tour of the Boer delegates who were striving to obtain European inter- 
vention? They were feted in Holland; France gave them rapturous welcome. They wished 
to come to Berlin, where the German people would have crowned them with flowers. But 
when they asked me to receive them — I refused. The agitation immediately died away, and: 
the delegation returned empty-handed. Was that, I ask, the action of a secret enemy? 

"Again, when the struggle was at its height, the German Government was invited by the- 
governments of France and Russia to join with them in calling upon England to put an end 
to the war. The moment had come, they said, not only to save the Boer republics, but 
also to humiliate England to the dust. What was my reply? I said that so far from Ger- 
many joining in any concerted European action to put pressure upon England and bring 
about her downfall, Germany would always keep aloof from politics that could bring her into 
complications with a Sea Power like England. Posterity will one day read the exact terms 
of the telegram — now in the ai-chives of Windsor Castle — in which I informed the Sovereign or 
England of the answer I had returned to the Powers which then sought to compass her fall. 
Englishmen who now insult me by doubting my word should know what were my actions in 
the hour of their adversity. 

"Nor was that all. Just at the time of your Black Week, in the December of 1899, when, 
disasters followed one another in rapid succession, I received a letter from Queen Victoria^ 



68 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

my revered grandmother, written in sorrow and affliction, and bearing manifest, traces of the 
anxieties which were preying upon her mind and health. I at once returned a sympathetic 
reply. Nay, I did more. I bade one of my officers procure for me as exact an account as he 
•oould obtain of the number of combatants in South Africa on both sides, and of the actual 
position of the opposing forces. With the figures before me, I worked out what I considered 
to be the best plan of campaign under the circumstances, and submitted it to my General 
Staff for their criticism. Then I dispatched it to England, and that document, likewise, is 
Among the state papers at Windsor Castle, awaiting the serenely imparial verdict of history. 
And, as a matter of curious coincidence, let me add that the plan which I formulated ran 
very much on the same lines as that which was actually adopted by Lord Roberts and car- 
Tied by him into successful operation. Was that, I repeat, the act of one who wished Eng- 
land ill? Let Englishmen be just and say! 

"But, you will say, what of the German navy? Surely that is a menace to England! 
-Against whom but England are my squadrons being prepared? If England is not in the 
minds of those Germans who are bent on creating a powerful fleet, why is Germany asked 
to consent to such new and heavy burdens of taxation? My answer is clear. Germany is a 
young and growing Empire. She has a world-wide commerce, which is rapidly expanding, 
and to which the legitimate ambition of patriotic Germans refuses to assign any bounds. 
H«3ermany must have a powerful fleet to protect that commerce and her manifold interests in 
^ven the most distant seas. She expects those interests to go on growing, and she must be 
-able to champion them manfully in any quarter of the globe. Germany looks ahead. It may 
be that England herself will be glad that Germany has a fleet when they speak together on 
"the same side in the great debates of the future." 

Hear Prof. John W. Burgess, the great historical authority, the dean of Col- 
ximbia University: 

"The Emperor is an exceedingly intelligent and highly cultivated man. His m'ental pro- 
"Cesses are swift, but they are also very deep. He is a searching inqu'irer, and questions and 
listens more than he talks. His fund of knowledge is immense and sometimes astonishing. 
He manifests interest in everything, even to the smallest detail, which can have any bear- 
ing upon human improvement. He always appeared to me most deeply concerned with the 
arts of peace. I have never heard him speak much of war, and then always with abhor- 
rence, nor much of military matters; but improved agriculture, invention, and manufacture, 
.and especially commerce and education in all their ramifications were the chief subjects of 
his thought and conversation. I have had the privilege of associating with many highly in- 
telligent and profoundly learned men, but I have never acquired as much knowledge, in the 
same time, from any man whom I have ever met as from the German Emperor. And yet 
with all this real superiority of mind and education his deference to the opinions of others 
is remarkable. Arrogance is one of the qualities most often attributed to him, but he is the 
•only ruler I ever saw in whom there appeared to be absolutely no arrogance. He meets you 
as man meets man. He cannot, at least does not, conceal his reverence for and devotion to 
the Empress, or his love for his children or his attachment to his friends. His consideration 
for Americans, especially, has always been remarkable. It was at his suggestion that the 
exchange of educators between the universities of Germany and of the United States was 
established, and it has been his custom to be present at the opening lecture of each new in- 
•cumbent of these positions at the University of Berlin and to greet him and welcome him to 
his work. He is also the first to extend to these foreign educators hospitality and social at- 
tention. To any one who has experienced his hearty welcome to his land and his home, the 
.assertion that he is arrogant and autocratic is so far away from the truth as to be ludicrous. 
Again I must say that I have never met a ruler, in monarchy or republic, in whom genuine 
democratic genlalty was a so predominant characteristic. 

"I once heard him say: 'You know in Germany we do not rate and classify people by 
their material possessions, but by the importance of the service they render to country, cul- 
ture and civilization.' His days are periods of constant labor and severe discipline. He rises 
-early, lives abstemiously and works until far into the night. There is no day laborer in his 
entire empire who gives so many hours per diem to his work. 

"More than once have I heard him say that he desired to see Germany a wealthy coun- 
try, but only as the result of honest and properly requited toil, and that wealth acquired by 
force or fraud was more a curse than a blessing, and was destined to go as it had come. His 
^jonception of the greatness of Germany is as a great intellectual and moral power rather 
than anything else. Its physical power he values chiefly as the creator and maintainer of 
the conditions necessary to the production and influence of this higher power. I have often 
heard him express this thoiight. 

"I firmly believe that there is no soul in this wide world upon whom the burden and grief 
•of this great catastrophe so heavily rests as upon the German Emperor. I have heard him 
-declare with the greatest earnestness and solemnity that he considered war a dire calamity 



MILITARISM. 6^ 

that Germany would never during his reign wage an offensive war, and that he hoped God 
would spare him from the necessity of ever having to conduct a defensive war. For years he 
has been conscious that British diplomacy was seeking to isolate and crush Germany by an 
alliance of Latin, Slav, and Mongol under British direction, and he sought in every way to 
avert it. He visited England himself frequently. He sent his Ministers of State over to cul- 
tivate the acquaintance and friendship of the British Ministers, but rarely would the British 
King go himself to Germany or send his Ministers to return these visits. More than once 
have I heard him say that he was most earnestly desirous of close friendship between Ger- 
many, Great Britain and the United States, and had done, was doing and would continue to 
do all in his power to promote it, but that while the Americans were cordially meeting him 
half way, the British were cold, suspicious and repellant. 

"I know that the two things which are giving him the deepest pain In this world catas- 
trophe, excepting only the sufferings of his own kindred and people, are the enmity of Great 
Britain and the misunderstanding of his character, feelings and purposes in America. To 
remedy the first we here can do nothing, but to dispel the second is our bounden duty." 

Hear Prof. Herbert C. Sanborn, of the chair of Philosophy of Vanderbilt 
University : 

"The Kaiser, it must be understood, places a devout trust and reliance on the power of 
a just and omnipotent God, that has largely gone out of fashion in most parts of Europe 
among rulers and subjects. He believes that every man in this world holds his position, 
whatever it may be, for some purpose, not contrary to the will of God, but by Divine Grace; 
that every man has peculiar social and religious duties, corresponding to the station in which 
Ood has placed him; that every man in short is a servant of God. The motto of the Crown 
Prince, 'Kenne Deine Arbeit, und tue sie,' 'Find out your work and do it,' really expresses 
the same feeling. It is a doctrine of social service for ruler and subject, and can offend no- 
body except a few atheists, who believe that they owe their enormous succesa to their own 
divine exertions." 

Hear Dr. Benjamin Ide Wheeler, President of the University of California: 
"This much can now be asserted beyond the shadow of a doubt: the war 

came about against the interests, against the desires, and agianst the efforts of the 

German Kaiser." 

Says Raymond E. Swing, the astute special correspondent of the Chicago 
News: 

■"Four days of striking had been lost, and, as every German kows, the loss of four days 
can mean decades of sorrow for the German nation. And this is the price that the Kaiser 
paid for the cause of peace. This is the measure of the progress of the last century. The 
pessimist may feel that this is small progress indeed, but the wlorld is a very old world, and 
a hundred years is a very short time, indeed, to bring any great changes in human nature. 
The spectacle of the Kaiser holding off his forces at a national sacrifice until the last hope 
for peace had been dissipated is one which must win a resplendent place in the annals 
of modern times." 

Says our U. S. Army and Navy Journal, and it knows: 

"There has been more than one occasion when the German Emperor, if he had been 
glory-mad, could have thrown his sword into the balance with far more chance of achieving 
success than at the present time. When the Russian Empire was in that fierce grapple with 
Japan, Wilehlm was ten years younger than he is today, and should have been more eager 
to achieve military fame than when only fifteen years away from threescore years and ten, 
which are supposed to round out the life of the average mortal. 

"Again at the time of the Agadir incident in Africa a splendid opportunity presented it- 
self for creating a reason for going to war, but the Kaiser sat firm and the war clouds blew 
over." 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 
THE CROWN PRINCE. 




Cannie Andy Carnegie, when, after Skibo- 
ing and kotowing around Europe for a sea- 
son, he hit America just after the war start- 
ed, lamented the fact that while the Kaiser 
was a man of peace and tried to prevent 
the war; yet, his swashbuckling son, (of-a- 
gun) the Crown Prince, was a fire-eater 
from 'way back, and had forced the war 
over his daddy's helpless head. (Andy 
couldn't afford to jump on the daddy be- 
cause he, Andy, had shortly before present- 
ed to the said daddy a handsome testimo- 
nial to his peace procilivities, and thrifty 
Andy ain't goin' to let any of Andy's testi- 
monials, haloes, and things go to waste.) 

So, what must have been the pragmatic 
Andy's consternation when, a few months 
later, the Crown Prince delivered a very 
celebrated statement. The Literary Digest 
calls it: 



"A remarkable interview granted by the German Crown Prince to an A .nerican journal'- 
ist." "It will," predicts one editor," "unquestionably modify American opinion of the Prince." 

"The mental picture of Prince Frederick William hitherto most familiar on this side of 
the Atlantic has been that of a rather irresponsible and very uncompromising militarist, an 
agitator for war. . . "Undoubtedly this is the most stupid, senseless, and unnecessary war 
of modern times," declares the Prince, who goes on to say that "it is a war not wanted by 
Germany, I can assure you, but it was forced on us, and the fact that we were so efficiently 
prepared to defend ourselves is now being used as an argument to convince the world that 
we desired the conflict." He pictures Germany "surrounded by jealous enemies, fighting for 
her existence," 

"When Mr. von Wiegand apologized for his 'Americanized German,' the Crown Prince con- 
tinued the interview in English. 

" 'I am a soldier, and therefore cannot discuss politics, but it seems to me that this 
whole business, all of this action that you see around here ,is senseless, unnecessary, and 
uncalled for. But Germany was left no choice in the matter. From the lowest to the high- 
est we all know that we are fighting for our existence. I know that the soldiers of the other 
nations probably say, and a great majority of them probably think, the same thing. This does 
not alter the fact, however, that we are actually fighting for our national life. 

" 'Since we knew that the present war was to be forced on us, it became our highest 
duty to anticipate the struggle by every necessary and possible preparation for the defense 
of the Fatherland against the iron ring which our enemies have for years been carefully 
and steadily welding about us. 

" 'The fact that we foresaw and, as far as possible, forestalled the attempt to crush us 
within this ring, and the fact that we were prepared to defnd ourselves, are now being used 
as an argument in an attempt to convince the world that we not only wanted this conflict. 
but that we are responsible for it. 

" 'No power on earth will ever be able to convince our people that this war was not en- 
gineered solely and wholly with a view to crushing the German people, their Government, 
their institutions, and all that they hold dear. As a result you will find the German people 
are one grand unit imbued with a magnificent spirit of self-sacrifice 

" 'There is no war party in Germany now, and there never has been. I cannot help be- 
lieving that it will very soon dawn upon the world that so far as Germany is concerned this 
conflict is not a war waged by some mythical party, but is a fight backed by the unity and 
solidarity of the German Empire. This unity is the best answer to the charge with which 
England is endeavoring to terrify the world — that this war is being pushed by an ambitious 
military clique.' " 



MILITARISM. 71 

The young commander of the German forces was dressed simply in the gray-g-reen khaki 
of his troops, in a uniform devoid of any decorations save a very small insignia of his rank 
of lieutenant-general and his recently-acquired black and white ribbon of the Order of the 
Iron Cross. 

"It surprises me that America, to which wc are bound by ties of friendship and blood as 
t)0 no other neutral country; America, where millions of our people have gone and carried 
the German tongue and German ideas of liberty and freedom, should be so totally unable to 
put itself in our place. 

"I would not be frank unless I admitted that it has been a surprise to me that Ameri- 
cans have not seen more clearly up to this time the position of Germany, entirely sur- 
rounded by jealous enemies, fighting for her existence; that they have not had a better un- 
derstanding which would necessarily mean a higher appreciation of the unexampled sacri- 
fices and heroism of our people, making this gigantic struggle with no other objective than 
the saving of the Fatherland." 

He attributed the attitude of America almost wholly to England's control of the press 
and the world's channels of communication. He frankly admitted that in the past Germany 
has failed to appreciate the imptortant role played by the press in world politics and in in- 
ternational affairs. He made it clear that Germany has learned a lesson in this respect, and 
learned it at the price of being branded in the eyes of the neutral nations as a military 
menace to the world's peace. 

EXPECTS SENTIMENT to CHANGE. 

"I have faith in the sense of justice of the American people," said his Highness, "once 
we can get to them the actual facts and the actual truths back of this conflict. I know that 
up to this time it has been impossible for them to thoroughly understand our situation, but I 
believe that when the truth is known to them the fair-mindedness and love of fair play, 
which has always characterized the acts of your countrymen, will result in a revulsion of 
sentiment in our favor. 

"I had many friends in America. I believe I still have some there. I also have many 
friends in England — or rather had," said the Prince, with a rueful smile and a shake of his 
head. Then turning abruptly and looking me squarely in the eye he said: 

" 'I want you to tell me exactly what is said about me in America.' 

DO THEY BELIEVE I'M A THIEF? 

" 'Yes, I know,' said the Crown Prince, nodding his head in assent and giving no evi- 
dence of surprise, 'and the English press says all that and much more. The English papers 
have stated that I am a thief and that I have personally robbed and pillaged these French 
houses in which we have been forced to make our headquarters. Really — and I want you to 
tell me frankly^ — is it possible that intelligent people in America or even in England can 
honestly believe such things of me? Can it be possible that they believe me capable of steal- 
ing pictures or art treasures, or permitting the looting of French homes?' " 

"I remind him that in war times sane judgment often went by the board. 

" 'I know, but it is simply incredible that people could believe what the English papers 
have printed about me personally and about our side of the wai\ Let's see, how many times 
have I committed suicide or been wounded?' " 

"I admitted I had lost count. 

"I am supposed recently to have been badly defeated on the Russian frontier," chuckled 
his Highness. "But this whole business would be much more amusing," he added in a more 
sober tone, "if I did not know that as a result of it the public in neutral countries is being 
misled. As to my being a war agitator, I am truly sorry that people do not know me better." 

"NO WAR PARTY IN GERMANY" 

"There is no war party in Germany now and there never has been. I cannot help be- 
lieving that it will very soon dawn upon the world that so far as Germany is concerned this 
conflict is not a war waged by some mythical party, but is a fight backed by the unity and 
solidarity of the German Empire. This unity is the best answer to the charge with which 
England is endeavoring to terrify the world — that the war is being pushed by an ambitious 
military clique." 

"The keynote of his makeup is his simplicity , lack of affectation, and the faculty he 
has of impressing you with the idea that he is just a natural human being, a man among 
men, with a quaint dignity, no poses and a hearty and freely-expressed dislike of pCmp. 
There seems little doubt that his reputation for breaking precedents and disregarding tra- 
ditions, especially if they have a tendency to hamper progress, is well earned. He is no 
diplomat, knows and admits it. He gives the impression of knowing his owTi limitations, 
but has a straightforward manner and an inclination to say just what he thinks, which makes 
him both trouble and friends. He has an unusual trait of being able to hear the unpleasant 
truth with good grace. His greatest antipathy is to flatterers. 

"From my conversation with him I gathered that the Crown Prince is strongly opposed 
lO bureaucracy and everything standing between the people and their ruler. It developed 



72 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

from my conversations with members of his staff that it is almost impossible to get him to 
sign the death sentence of a convicted spy or franc-tireur. 

"Recently when the French stormed the German trenches in the Argonne and were 
hurled back at one point with an unusually heavy loss, the Crown Prince offered the French 
a truce in order that they might gather up their wounded, who strewed the ground before 
the German trenches. When I asked the Crown Prince about the incident, he replied: 

" 'Yes, there were several hundred dead and wounded in front of our trenches. I simply 
could not stand it, thinking of those brave fellows badly wounded, and lying there, many of 
them dying within a few yards of our doctors and nurses, while others were trying to drag 
themselves inch by inch toward our or their own trenches. I almost had a row about it 
with my Chief of Staff, who opposed me in the matter, saying the French would only re- 
port that we had asked for a truce because we were defeated. But I insisted on a white 
flag bearer being sent to the French trenches with an offer to give them time to get their 
wounded or allow us to get them. They refused, and, as a result, hundreds of those wounded 
fellows who might have been saved perished miserably. Some of them lived three or four 
days without food, water or medical attention. The whole thing seemed to me an instance 
of senseless and useless cruelty.' 

"As a matter of fact I learned from other officers that the Chief of Staff was right in 
his judgment. The French did report that the Germans had asked for a truce." 

THE WHYS AND WHEREFORES. 
Heed this from the speech of the great Bismarck before the Reichstag in 1888: 

"Great complications and all kinds of coalitions, which no one can foresee, are constant- 
ly possible, and we must be prepared for them. We must be so sti'ong, irrespective of mo- 
naentary conditions, that we can face any coalition with the assurance of a great nation 
which is strong enough under any circumstances to take her fate into her own hands. We must 
be able to face our fate placidly with that self-reliance and confidence in God which are ours 
when we are strong and our cause is just. And the Government will see to it that the Ger- 
man cause will be just always, 

"When I say that it is our duty to endeavor to be ready at all times and for all emer- 
gencies, I imply that we must make greater exertions than other people for the same pur- 
pose, because of our geographical position. We are situated in the heart of Europe, and have 
at least three fronts open to attack. France has only her eastern, and Russia only her 
western frontier where they may be attacked. We are also more exposed to the dangers of 
a coalition than any other nation, as is provided by the whole development of history, by our 
geographical position, and the lesser degree of cohesiveness, which until now has character- 
ized the German nation in comparison with others. God has placed us where we are pre- 
vented, thanks to our neighbors, from growing lazy and dull. He has placed by our side 
the most warlike and restless of all nations, the French and He has permitted warlike in- 
clinations to grow strong in Russia, where formerly they existed to a lesser degree. Thus, 
we are given a spur, so to speak, from both sides, and are compelled to exertions which we 
should perhaps not be making otherwise. The pikes in the European carp-pond are keeping 
us from being carps by making us feel their teeth on both sides. They also are forcing us to 
an exertion which without them we might not make, and to a union among us Germans*, 
which is abhorrent to us at heart. By nature we are rather tending away, the one from the 
other. But the Franco-Russian press within which we are squeezed compels i;s to hold to- 
gether, and by pressure our cohesive force is greatly increased. This will bring us to that 
state of being inseparable which all other nations possess, while we do not yet enjoy it. 
But we must respond to the intentions of Providence by making ourselves so strong that the 
pikes can do nothing but encourage us." 

Prof. Ferd Schevill of the Chair of History, University of Chicago cogently 
says: 

"No other modern government has, on the whole, co-operated sJo intelligently with the 
free powers of its citizens. But in order to inspire that confidence without which work 
will always remain half-hearted and ineffective, the govermnent was obliged to make the 
maintenance of a long and durable peace the prime object of its care. Without peace no 
productive national labor, without labor no leadership in civilization — the argument was 
so simple that it would have taken a government of the blind not to see that peace was the 
first and foremost condition of all progress and well-being." 

In a speech delivered May 2, 1S71, Bismarck pointed out that there had not been "a gen- 
eration of our fathers for three hundred years which had not been forced to draw the 
sword against France." 

A PERSONAL FOREWORD (from Von Mach's "What Germany Wants.") 

During the preparation of this book the writer received from his uncle, a veteran army 
officer living in Dresden, a brief note containing the following laconic record: 



MILITARISM. 73 

1793, your great grandfather at Kostheim. 

1815, your grandfather at I^iegnitz. 

1870, myself — all severely wounded by French bullets. 

1914, my son, captain in the 6th Regiment of Dragoons. 

Four generations obliged to fight the French! 

Hear this powerful editorial from the Koelnische Zeitung: 

"It is, of course, easy to see why Prussian militarism should be nerve-racking for Eng- 
lishmen, and especially for Sir Edward and his associates — that militarism which burst 
like a storm upon the 'allied armies,' and has reduced the English expeditionary army to 
hardly half its original strength, and of which the London Times said: 'The rapidity of 
the German advance was, for those who are familiar with the territory and distances in- 
volved , only short of the miraculous.' 

"But what can the English shopkeepers, who buy their soldiers as they do their cotton 
bales, what can these islanders for whom a comnaon soldier is the most despised being on 
earth, even remotely know of the self-sacrificing spirit of a people which finds itself 
wedged in between powerful and jealous neighbbrs, compelled for the sheer purpose of self- 
preservation to become a veritable 'nation of soldiers'? Call it militarism or what you 
will, it is the development of a century of strain and stress, and our system of universal 
military duty is nothing more than a system of national defense, which for us Germans is 
a national, an ethical ideal, yea, the most democratic of all institutions on earth, by which 
every one, noble and peasant, rich and poor, feels obliged to offer up for his Fatherland his 
all, his best, his heart's blood! We have nothing but contempt for the English phrase- 
inakers and English business-politicians who with contaminated fingers try to soil our 
national ideal. Let them but read the list of our casualties: princes and laborers, counts 
and peasants. Catholics, Protestants, and Jews, Social Democrats, Conservatives, Centrists, 
and Liberals, all without exception heroes on the field of honor, martyrs for the Father- 
land! Your stakes, O Englishmen, are not equal to ours. Only by enrolling in j^our army 
the flower of your people, instead of the scum of your Empire, will you be heard to discuss 
these things. That is the spirit of Prussia, of German militarism, the spirit which animates 
our entire people, from the Emperor down to the beggar, the spirit which stakes everything 
on national honor. Follow our example, it" you can, O Englishmen, then we can resume our 
discussion." 

Says our Army and Navy Journal: 

"We who watch over the Monroe Doctrine with nervous care are scarcely in a position 
to shout "militarism" at the Germans or Austrians when they risk the arbitrament of war 
for a principle of racial homogeneity that may have just as solid a basis in the needs of 
the people as has that Doctrine." 

Says Dr. William R. Shepherd, of Columbia University; 

"Choosing then to ignore the fact that Germany has spent far less on armaments than 
they have, and accusing her of a "militarism," which, however, has kept the peace for more 
than forty years, her three great antagonists have been preparing to break the peace and 
to use the armaments: Russia — to throw down the w^alls of Berlin and Vienna, which bar 
the way to Constantinople and the North Atlantic; England — to dismantle the fleet that 
guards a growing merchant marine, and France — to regain the territories lost in an earlier 
war." 

Hear Dr. C. J. Hexamer, President of the National German-American Alliance, 
which months ago had a membership of 2,000,000. Lord only knows how many 
it is now. Better set up and take notice, Mr. Politician, eh? 

"Much has lately been said of General von Bernhardi's book, which was never 
taken seriously by Germans, and of which only 8,000 copies, I am told, were sold 
in Germany. But why arc we not told of how English writers, when the young 
American navy was being built, insisted that it should be crushed before it became 
too strong? And no less a man than Lord Roberts only three years ago insisted 
that England's immediate enemy was Germany, but her eventual enemy the 
United States. 

"My friends, let ns be just. We have in Germany over sixty-five millions of 
people on less ground than we have in our State of Texas. Few Americans have 
any idea how small Germany really is. If you cut a slice as large as all our New 
England States put together off of Texas, you still have an area larger than Ger- 
many. And Germany is struggling against colossal powers on every side. Im- 
agine that instead of Canada we had Russia on one side of us with practically all 



74 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

Asia at her beck and call with millions and niillions of human material for its 
army; that instead of Mexico we had the high-strung French people thirsting for 
revenge, with a standing army larger than that of Germany, spending more than 
Germany for its militarism, and pouring millions of dollars into the coffers of 
Russia to help it arm against us, and let us further suppose that where Burmuda 
is situated we had England with a navy four times as strong as that of Germany." 



SOME OTHER MILITARISMS. 



It is enough to make a horse laugh to hear England's howl about German 
Militarism, when she herself is the greatest militarist of mediaeval or modern 
times; when she herself is paying 60 per cent, per capita more than Germany for 
armaments. It is the joke of the Ages. It is the pot calling the tea cup black. 
She pretends to advocate disarmament (for everybody but herself — she always^ 
more or less directly, has that saving string tied to the proposition.) England is 
always stalling about being for disarmament. She tries to make Americans (for 
they are the only crew on earth she can fool,) believe she favors disarmament 
when she simply asks Germany to agree with her to stop building new boats. She 
doesn't propose to do away at all with the great number she already has. For 
both to quit building would leave her some 3 or 4 to Germany's 1. 

But the most grotesque part of the proposition was that, upon Germany's 
pressing her, she wouldn't bind her colonies to quit building — nor her ally, France. 
She thought Germany was fool enough to be caught napping. 

Germany finally replied with this squelcher: "You build what you please: we 
will, what we must." 

LET THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG. 

"In a friendly discussion with an American of Eng-lisli descent the author was told that 
the success of the allies would result in universal disarmament by the establishment of an 
international police. When he inquired how, in view of the general di.^armament the de- 
crees of this court would be enforced, he was told: 'Oh, well, the British navy will naturally 
form an important part of this police.' " — Von Mach. 



THE BRITISH MENACE. 

A PREGNANT EDITORIAL. 

"Thus Great Britain moves forward toward her goal — the absolute mastery of the sea. 
There is no concealment about it. Militarism on land is a hateful thing, to be fought and 
destroyed if it takes all the nations of Europe to do it. But militarism on the sea is an ad- 
mirable thing, so long as it is British militarism. That is the British view which the woi'ld 
is asked to accept. 

"How can the United States be expected to rest at ease, without increasing its navy, 
in the face of Great Britain's determination to build such a gigantic navy? How can there 
be any assurance of peace in the world while one nation plans to dominate all the others 
in every sea? 

"Great Britain appeals for the sympathy of the world, and especially foj the sympathy 
of the United States, on the ground that she is 'fighting America's l^attle against mili- 
tarism.' Germany is held up as an ogre to frighten Americans. Germany's great military 
machine is denounced as a menace to the world, which must be destroyed before Europe or 
America can be secure. 

But what about British militarism? What about the mobile military machine which 
England can move against our ports and against the Panama Canal? Germany's armiy 
ts not a menace to the United States, because it cannot come to these shores. But 
Britain's navy can come, and it can bring an army with it. 

"The unctuous suggestion that all nations should shield the seas to Great Britain — that 
she will look after them — that her yoke is easy and her intentions honorable — is not at all 
reassuring to Americans. They do not want a yoke, even a British yoke. They do not 
ask Great Britain to look after them." — Washington Post, Dec. 19th, 1914. 

George Bernard Shaw, the brilliant Britisher, has brains enough to see the 
truth about what started this war and almost courage enough to tell the whole 
truth. He concedes in his "Common Sense About the War," that back with "The 
Battle of Dorking," England began that jingo line of talk about The Day. 



MILITARISM. 75 

He also adduces the fact that Bernhardi learned most of his militaristic lesson 
from England and actually quotes Bernhardi to the effect that English Journals 
had taught him the "Doctrine of the bully, of the materialist, of the man with gross 
ideals; a doctrine of diabolical evil." 

And to cap the climax the London Morning Post shells down the corn: 
"The absurd talk about this being a war against militarism has now subsided; the Brit- 
ish people see that only by intelligent use of military power can they hope to defeat their 
arrogant and over-weening: neighbor. After all, the British Empire is built up on good 
fightlno by its Army and Navy; the spirit of War Is native to the British race, and as we 
have an excellent cause — nothing less than the national existence — this military and n:|tionajl 
spirit requires no apology." 

Most aptly says our Army and Navy Journal: 

"Study of the military strength of Germany and France discloses the fact that with a 
population nearly twenty-five million less the actual war strength of the two countries is prac- 
tically the same. 

"If with a far smaller population France is able to put into the field a trained army as 
great as that of Germany, it must be plain that French militarism is drawing more heav- 
ily on the men of that country than the German system is drawing on the men of Germany. 

"It should be noted that the regular term of service of her soldiers was two years and 
of all young men of some education only one year. 

"At the outbreak of the present war more than one million men, many of then not pre- 
viously trained in the army, volunteered their services, and early in September the Gov- 
ernment was obliged to announce that for the present no more men could be enlisted. 

"Compare this with the conditions in other European countries, where, in some in- 
stances all able-bodied young men had to serve in the army not only one or tvvo but three 
years." — Von Mach's "What Germany War^ts." 



A BUNCH OF BERNHARDPS 

A FRENCH SPECIMEN. 



In La Guerre de Demain (The Next War) by M. Keller, published September 
10, 1891, not only the invasion but also the final annexation of Belgium by France 
was outlined. 

ROBERTSI BERNHARDI. 

We have also seen for years how the aged Commander-in-Chief, Lord Roberts, 
has, by spoken and written words, tried to create a more virile spirit among his 
countrymen. But in proportion as England has perceived and not been ashamed 
of her increasing inefficiency, she has also felt gnawing at her vitals envy and 
hatred for the nation which was effiicient and which was pushing successfully 
her trade and commerce to those parts of the world where England had been so 
long pre-eminent, that she had come to look upon her trade supremacy as some- 
thing given her by divine right. 

The clearest proof of the sordidness of England's motives is the order she 
has given to her people not to trade with any firm throughout the world which 
has a German partner. — John L. Stoddard, the distinguished traveler and author. 

"I can say to Lord Bryce what he himself, in his great endeavor for fairness, hints at, 
that neither Von Bernhardi nor the followers of the School of Treitschke nor the disciples of 
Nietzsche are the guiding spirits of the conscientious and painstaking men that conduct 
the affairs of Germany. Neither are their teachings the gospel of the German voter — fully 
one-third of the German population, as represented by the ballot, is Socialist, has never voted 
a budget on account of the war expenditure contained therein; has been preaching inter- 
nationalism, republican ideas, and a state of the future on communistic lines. More than one- 
third of the German population is Catholic, politically organized for the upholding of the 
equal rights of Catholics with Protestants, true children to their Roman Church. They are 
certainly not imbued with the unchristian idea of the superman." — Dr. Dernberg. 

"Again, practically every English editor found in the name of Nietzsche a synonym for 
German philosophy; in the name Treitschke, a synonym for German political ideas; and 
in the name Bernhardi, a synonym for German military ideals. Yet has any one of these 
men affected more than one class in the Fatherland? Indeed, Nietzsche is both disliked and 
despised by most Germans; and no German writer of the same class, it is held, not even 
Hauptmann, has been as much affected by Nietzsche as has been the Russian Merejskowsky." 
—Outlook. 



76 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

I can forgive old Bernhardi for almost anything; but I am bound to draw the 
line on these awful extracts from his bloody book: 

"It is the first duty of the German nation to arrest or destroy British power. (Page 204.) 

"The neutrality of a minor state, once it is included in the theatre of war waged between 
greater nations becomes an anomaly. (Page 213.) 

"The occupation (of a neutral country) .... arouses in the Genrhan nation the ap- 
pearance of great opposition to the violatfion of neutral territory. This is false, for the Ena- 
pire is not moved by the sanctity of neutrality. It is only a means of avoiding responsibil- 
ity and shifting it upon these nations, deluding themselves with the belief that such declara- 
tions are inviolable; whereas no nation has violated neutral territory and denied their obli- 
gation more frequently than the Saxon." (Page 226.) (Saxons live in Saxony, a German 
State.) 

"The brutality of all national development is apparent, and we make no excuse for it. To- 
conceal it would be a denial of fact; to glam^our it over, an apology to truth. There is little 
in life that is not brutal except our ideal. As we increase the aggregate of individuals and 
their collective activities, we increase proportionately their brutality. (Page 10.) 

"There can be no further extension of German Sovereignty without encroachment upon 
the political rights and territorial possessions of other nations. (Page 23.) 

"It is very simple, this irrevocable law of war. It is terrible in its simplicity. (Page 23. > 

"For a Saxon to deny war is to epitomize human vanity, (Page 22.) 

"In the development of the Russian Empire man has more nearly approached those char- 
acteristics that mark the measured, unhurried growth of Nature. In its extension it has 
moved onward with elemental propulsion. Like a glacier, its movement is only apparent by 
periods of time. So imperceptible is the terrible, imperturbable grind of its way that we do 
not perceive its progress until it has passed a given point. What it does not crush it erodes. 
What it does not erode it forces on in front until into some crevasse, great or small, it pushes 
the debris that impedes its way. It moves on. (Page 106.) 

"There is a savage sublimity in this thought — to use empires as stepping stones. (Page 
146.) 

"Wars have brought about the formation of this Empire and wars will prolong or shorten 
its existence. (Page 3.) 

"By wars and conquests, by theft and intrigue, by the same brutal use of physical power, 
was it (the Empire) put together piece by piece. (Page 10.) 

"The scorn of war, like the denial of death, belongs to the same category of self-de- 
ception. (Page 6.) 

So, we see what a diabolical demon Bernhardi actually was. Hello, Bernhardi, 
did I say? I've heard him talked so much his name clogs in my brain. I should 
have said, every word of the above was written by Homer Lea in a book dedicated 
to Lord Roberts and accepted, without protest from him. In my illusion I have 
stupidly put German where British belonged. 



SHRAPNEL. 

"British statesmen and journals have delighted to tell the world that Great Britain is 
making war to save German people from militarism, to bring independence to the oppressed 
Teutons. Was there ever a more complete, a more crushing answer to such cant than that 
supplied by Kiau-Chau, by the response of the Germans of the East to a call not to battle 
but to disaster, to a summons not to possible victory but to inevitable defeat and destruc- 
tion?" — New York "Evening Sun." 

As another example of the horrible autocracy of German Militarism: Who 
are the best known, most universally admired German Generals today? Every- 
body correctly answers, Von Hindenberg and Von Kluck. Both rose absolutely 
from the ranks. Von Kluck was the son of a poor letter carrier. 

"Every great power which is trying to influence or to restrain the policies of other coun- 
tries in matters which are beyond the sphere of its interests is playing politics beyond the 
bounds which God has assigned to it. Its policy is one of force and mot of vital interests. It 
is working for prestige. We shall not do this." — Bismarck. 



MILITARISM. 



77 




WAR SENTIMENT IS NATIONAL. 

"Do you suppose that such a unanimous, national sentiment as this, ^^ich thrills and 
solemnizes the be'holder, and in which every trace of party rivalry has disappeared, can have 

the enormous debt, which they and all the rest of the world owe to her. -John L. Stoddard. 
Who would want German Militarism anyhow, when the planet's peace can 
be turned over to the below quintette of Christian pacifists ? 




CHAPTER VI 
ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM, Etc. 

"THE EYE WITNESS." 

By George Byng, in Fatherland. 

I vouch for all, and who would doubt my 'Twas little Belgian babies that they boiled 

truth? In that loathed kettle. Who would dare 

I was a witness of the slaughterous deed. dispute? 

We traveled half a day thro' Belgium, What else, now tell me, was that kettle for? 

The sight I saw would make a hard heart I saw it. And the German is a brute. 

bleed. (We went unfed for almost one whole day, 

<We had to travel in a third-class train. That was an outrage, I shall always say.) 
But war is hell, so I must not complain.) 

Of course, I could not let you use my name, 

I saw a kettle, hanging on three sticks. Publicity, you know, I could no't bear. 

Left by the dastard Germans in their flight. Just sign my story simply "Veritas," 

What hideous usage was it hanging for? "Impartial," or "A Woman Who Was 

O shades of Erebus and darkest night! There." 

('Twas second-class we had to cross the sea, (I think the President should interfere, 

And that was brutal treatment, you'll agree. When this atrocity shall reach his ear.) 

— By George Byng, in "Fatherland." 

It is stating it mildly to say that the most dastardly, utterly devilish brand of 
canned lies the All-lies have tried to poison the world with, has been the charge 
that the Germans have been guilty of all manner of atrocities, ferocities, etc., ad 
infinitum in Belgium and France. 

Now, in the first place, supposing that the Germans are actually essentially 
barbarous. Every even moderately informed person is bound to know that their 
military discipline is so strict that the private soldiers would have almost no op- 
portunity for outrages. As to the olTicers; however outrageously disposed in- 
herently, they would be held in check by the vital consideration of EXPEDIENCY. 
They couldn't afford to let the world, America particularly, ever have real ground 
for believing that it was a fight for Civilization against Savagery; for, then America 
and all civilized and semi-civilized countries of Europe, Asia and Africa, would 
not only be justified but Tv'ould be duty-bound to fight against the savage to save 
Civilization. 

All this is on the theory that the Germans are essentially savages. Of course, 
there are brutes, perverts, in Germany; but they are few. My guess would be they 
number about 10 per cent, of the brutes in England or in France and 1 per cent, 
of the brutes in Russia. However, German thoroughness spots them and nullifies 
their possibilities of mischief more perfectly than any other country. 

Until this war, never before in civilized times were such charges brought 
against the German character; probably because Germany was never before at war 
with England, the Mother of all lies and Belgium, the recognized incarnation of 
modern Congoism, and Russia, the fecund womb of the Cossack Monster. 

The spewing up and world-wide strewing of these villainous fabrications was, 
of course, the natural sequel of the chapter begun by the cutting of the German 
cable. It was designed first to inflame the civilized world, particularly America, 
against Germany; second, to forestall and neutralize, or at least partly ofTset, the 
actual outrages that England knew would be committed by cockney perverts of her 
own, by France's decadents, by Russia's Cossacks, and by the whole hired hetero- 
geneous horde of sun-cured savages and black-and-tan hellions scraped up with a 
fine tooth comb from all out-doors, when they should get the chance. (Happily, 
thanks to German valor and efficiency, none ever got the chance, on German soil, 
except the Cossacks, and reports indicate that they more than sustained their rep- 
utation for all-around hellishness.) This episode, the hiring of these black-and- 
tan hellions to slaughter their British blood kin, the Germans, was, in itself, to 
my mind, the arch-atrocity of all ages; and no doubt England propagated her 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. 79 

slimy spawn of vicious lies about German Atrocities mainly to distract attention 
from her own monstrous performance. The third reason was to lire the cockney 
heart and stimulate recruiting among her own Tomlinsons and tatterdemalions. 
By including atrocities on Belgian priests, they hoped also to fire the Irish heart. 

Now, there have been many charges and countercharges. No doubt, some 
isolated cases, are at least partly true; but, Germany has the inestimable advantage 
of previous good character; a factor which even in our narrow characteristically 
English system of law, is permitted to go to the jury to establish innocence in every 
criminal trial. Germany, then, first makes profert of that great fact. 

In the second place, practically all of the cited instances against her have 
been made anonymously, or, where otherwise, have been disproved upon fair in- 
vestigation. 

Alas, for the Allies. Not one of them has a clean previous record. When they 
charge the Germans with outrages, the very first inference is that it is the pot 
calling the kettle black. 

There are some ALLEGED atrocities that the Germans with their customary 
honesty frankly concede. Moreover, the German officers assume the entire respon- 
sibility. Such a class of conduct was the killing of civilians for sniping and the 
destroying of the habitats of the snipers. They did this. They proudly plead 
guilty. It was a universally recognized valid principle of warfare; one only re- 
cently invoked by the United States at Vera Cruz and always utilized by England 
all down her annals, not merely for purposes of self—protection for her troops, 
but as a brutal pretext to utterly starve defenseless women and children. 

"Vera Cruz, May 5.~-A woman "sniper" was ordered before a military court martial to- 
day to be tried on a charge of murdering eight American bluejackets or marines during the 
first of the fighting, having picked them off one after the other in the streets." 

The German officers also proudly, but with poignant regret for the necessity 
forced upon them, plead guilty to striking the grand old Rheims Cathedral. 
Right here I must dilate a little. 

THE RHEIMS CATHEDRAL. 

At the age of 18 I read Victor Hugo's Les Miser ables. It affected my young 
emotional nature more profoundly than any two books, even including Shakes- 
peare, that I had ever read. From it, I learned to love and even to admire the 
Frenchman. It seemed easy to condone his emotional afTectations, his volatile 
transitions of mood, his seemingly superficial indifference to even the vital sexual 
interests; it seemed easy to overlook such human traits when I thought of his 
chivalric impulses; his seemingly passionate aspiration for intellectual and spir- 
itual freedom; his willingness under stress to make heroic sacrifices. Hence, just 
imagine the shock when I learned the truth about the bombardment of the famous 
Cathedral. Here are the Facts : 

The Germans purposely spared the cathedral from the bombardment until they found 
signal men in the towers; twice they sent officers, under flags of truce, to urge the French 
to withdraw their signalers; and only fired on the building when both these warnings had 
been disregarded, ceasing to fire as soon as they had driven the enemy from the towers. 

So, the Germans had to fire on the Cathedral to protect their whole vital 
strategy from being detected by the enemy. In the name of God, what dastard 
souls put the grand old Cathedral before them as a shield? You can't make me be- 
lieve they were Frenchmen. There are brutes, moral perverts in every army, but 
I don't believe there were that special sort in the French ranks. No, if I had three 
guesses as to who they were, it would be, first, English cockneys, striving to show 
their cleverness; second, Brute Cossacks; third, super-serviceable Japs; but true 
Frenchmen — never. They simply couldn't have been Hugo's Frenchmen. 

Come to think, however, the French have been cutting some rather curious 
didoes since Hugo's time, that seem to smack smartly of incipient degeneration. 
I had almost forgotten that they exiled Hugo himself for a time. Then there were 
the sinister intrigues to gobble up Belgium, frustrated by Bismarck. Then there 
was that abominable Alliance with a brutal Czardom. Then that lying chain of 
^'damnable iterations" of no binding alliance with England. Then, the Boulanger, 



80 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



Panama, Dreyfus, and Calliaux episodes. Then, that scurvy, evasive reply to Ger- 
many's request as to her intentions — it all seems to spell deterioration,at least, if 
not actual degeneration. 

Shame on you, miscreants, aye, double-dyed vandals, to dodge behind the 
Cathedral, and when you are dislodged, whine to the world that the Germans were 
vandals! Whoever would do such woul ddodge behind his wife or child when 
the bullets are flying. 







/W 




N 

^ 


i 




m 


s 


s 




K 


> 
N 


I 




^ 


J 




w 


..^1^ 


§ 


1 II 



Boasted the London Times: 



ZEPS AND BOMB - BOMBS ! 

Another lurid line of atrocities, aye, 
desecration, to which official Germany 
pleads guilty with avid gusto is bombard- 
ing the English Coast Towns by day and 
dropping bombs about promiscuously at 
night on the Tight Little Isle. Of course, 
they would prefer to drop the bombs by 
day if England would permit. But she 
would churlishly refuse the permit. She 
thinks the Germans ought to come flying 
low and slow, with pasteboard bombs 
loaded with confetti and bon-bons, and 
lower them down gently, while the gal- 
lant Britishers blow up their Zeppelins 
and take their crews to the Tower to be 
shot as spies. How utterly, provokingly 
unaccommodating these Germans are 
anvhow! 



'"And should the war last ten years; should the last French garcon of Bordeaux, the last 
Cossack from the Caucasus find his grave upon the battlefield — England's soil will always 
remain unmolested and untouched." 

And why did they feel so secure? Hadn't they been (as they thought) lying to 
their muddle heads for years trying to work them up to a war frenzy against their 
blood, the Germans, with the tale of a German invasion not merely by land but 
also by Zeppelins (thus tacitly acknowledging the right of the Germans to so at- 
tack them?) They just simply didn't believe their own (supposed) lies. They 
didn't believe the Germans either courageous or adventurous enough to do it. 
They thought (and, after the war started, in one loud refrain boasted) that the 
little isle actually was wax-tight against attack. They had searchlights to deter 
the Zeppelins and mounted guns to fetch them down, and brutes to slash and draw 
and quarter any of the crew the fall didn't kill. Their coasts had land batteries 
all the way, and the greatest navy of the world to protect them. They even put 
out wire nets, as at Hartlepool. 

Feeling thus snug and smug, they sallied forth to bombard Belgian towns held 
by the Germans, Zeebruggee, Ostende, etc. The Germans didn't whimper, but took 
their medicine. The adventurous Britishers dropped bombs anywhere in Belgium 
or Germany they w^ere not afraid to go. By such operations, scores of non-com- 
batants, including innocent women and children, were slain. But the Germans 
didn't cheep. 

Then, behold, the table turns. The old lies about coast bombardment and 
bomb-dropping came true. Despite British innuendoes, the Germans proved brave 
enough to bombard the coasts by day and drop bombs by night on the tight little 
isle, and (mirable dictii) smart enough to get back to base without the loss of a 
single man.. 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. 81 

And then? Ah, then the erstwhile British braggarts boo-hooed like cry-babies. 
Yes, those "noble Britons" who professed sportsmanlike fortitude and Spartan 
nerve, squealed like stuck pigs. 

And we Americans who had been so long hypnotized by the Britishers' bound- 
less braggadocio about their own matchless selves, their immaculate honor, their 
God-like courage, etc. — I say, what of us? Oh, how we should have shuddered and 
wept at the very thought of one of those divinely annointed getting killed or even 
hurt. 

Oh, the muddle-pated Britisher thought he could keep it over us all right. But 
alasl We were gradually growing wise. Oh, the lachrymose muss those gentry 
stirred up! Oh, how they mouthed the gruesome details and held coroner's in- 
quests I Oh, how they bleated 1 Their whines ululated clear across the Atlantic 1 
Then they paused — to drink in the diapason of awful indignation due from their 
sympathetic "Cousins" across the sea. Alas, it didn't materialize. As big fools as 
we are, we couldn't exactly see how England had the right to bombard the Belgian 
coast towns like Ostende and Zeebrugge ad libitum, and drop bombs on the grand 
old university town of Freiburg, and other towns as they had been ecstatically 
doing, and slay women and children in these Germanized Belgian towns, and yet 
Germany not have the right to occasionally toss a few steel pellets into English 
towns which the braggarts had repeatedly claimed to be not only fortified but ut- 
terly impervious to danger. (They even went so far as to kill their own whine by 
bragging in the same breath that their shore batteries had disabled and probably 
sunk a bunch of the attacking craft.) 

A good sample of what they got from America is this from the pro British 
but tolerably fair Birmingham Age-Herald : 

"England is now busily engaged in locking- the door after the horse has been stolen and 
is making elaborate prepara.tions to guaj-d against further German raids. The attitude of 
the English government toward the bombardment of the coast towns is typical of its stand 
throughout the war and does not provoke admiration. 

"Since the beginning of hostilities England has kept up ceaseless accusations against 
the Germans that they were violating the rules of warfare, few of which have ever been 
proved to the satisfaction of the nonpartisan world. Such actions become wearisome and 
the claims of the English are particularly tiring in the present o^ise, so slight is the founda- 
tion." 

Thank God, even the great American slob is getting wise to them at last. Be- 
fore this war, just any half-cockney snob could come over here and break an im- 
perious silence with only an occasional sputter of nonsense from pursed lips and 
stopped-up nose, and easily hypnotize into idolatry our great contingent of prigs 
and lobsters. Ever since Waterloo Englishers had been thus lording it over all the 
obsequious asses of the earth. What, then, must have been the utter apoplexy of 
these Englishers to learn that the American yokel would stand for it no more for- 
ever. What an ominous disillusionment — what ghastly suggestions of farewell to 
their fond hope of eventually lugging America into the war against Germany! 

0, what a vulgar, sorry, tawdry spectacle? The Lion's skin thrown ofT at 
last and an abject ass, braying with terror, revealed in its ludicrous nakedness! 

There is another line of atrocity, also, to which I shall also have to plead 
guilty for the Germans. It is exemplified in the cartoons on next page, which 
might properly be termed Cruelty to Animals and Barbarians' Lack of Appreci- 
ation of the Noble Briton's Proud Sensibilities. 



LIES OUT OF THE WHOLE CLOTH. 



Of course, these atrocity charges against the Germans are bald, stark lies, 
without the semblance of truth. All of them ever labeled with a "local habitation 
and a name" were run down and exploded. 

Seeing with what tremendous effect these English can use lies; God only 
knows what they could do if they could only get the truth, or even a semblance 
of it to operate on. They could certainly freeze our blood and make 

"Each Individual hair stand straight on end 
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine." 



82 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 




--^-^y 
"^^4/ 




i^^^^&^H iwew^i 




mi'-.^^ 



Top left, from "Siniplicissinius," The Gen- 
tleman in German captivity: 'The barbari- 
ans! To lock me up among n\y allies!" 

Right, from "Fliegende Blaetter" : If 
those fellows were exhibited ait our County 
Fair, we would do a rushing business." 

Botton, from "Jugend," "The Culture Al- 
liance": 

"The animals are requested not to tease 
or annoy one another." 



It goes without saying, then, that they ransacked creation and used all their un- 
limited facilities for detection of even isolated cases. If any existed, they surely 
would have found them. How significant, then, sounds this? 

PREMIER ASQUITH. 

London, September 14, 3:23 p. ni. — Premier Asqiiith told the House of Com- 
mons today that no official information had reached the Ministry of War concern- 
ing the repeated stories that German soldiers had abused the Bed Cross flag, killed 
and maimed the wounded, and killed women and children as had been alleged 
so often in stories of the battlefields. 

"In an interview with Monsignor Dr. Coenrad, Vice Rector of the University of Louvain, Dr. 
Ooenrad declared that there was much sniping of German soldiers in the streets, and that 
the reports of Belgian guns were readily distinguishable from those of the Germans by their 
sound. Coenrad was one of the hostages who was held by the Germans after the shooting. 
He heard that other prominent citizens of the town were led through the streets to read to 
the populace the German proclamation warning them against bushwhacking. Even while 
the proclamation was being read, shots were fired. He praises the conduct of the Germans 
after the taking of the city." 



"We are unable to confirm rumors of mistreatment of prisoners or non-com- 
batants with the German columns. This is true of Louvain, Brussels, Liineville, and 
Nantes, while in Prussian hands. 

"We visited Chateau, Soldre, Sambre and Beaumont without substantiating a 
single wanton brutality. Numerous investigated rumors proved groundless. Every- 
where we have seen Germans paying for purchases and respecting property rights, 
as well as according civilians every consideration. 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. 83 

"After the battle of Biass" {probably Barse, a suburb of Namiir] "we found 
Belgian women and children moving comfortably about. 

"The day after the Germans had captured the town in {of?) Merbes Chateau 
(possibly Ste. Marie) we found one citizen killed, but were unable to confirm lack 
of provocation. Refugees with stories of atrocities were unable to supply direct 
evidence. 

"Belgians in the Sambre Valley discounted reports of cruelties in the sur- 
rounding countries. 

"The discipline of the German soldiers is excellent, as we observed. 
"To the truth of these statemnets we pledge our professional and personal 
word. 

"ROGER LEWIS, Associated Press. 

"IRVIN S. COBB, Saturday Evening Post and Philadelphia 

Public Ledger. 
"HARRY HANSEN, Chicago Daily News. 
"JAMES O'DONNELL BENNETT, and 
"JOHN T. McCUTCHEON, Chicago Tribune." 

JOSEPH MEDILL PATTERSON. 

"Tlie Hague, September 11, to the Chicago Tribune: "I firmly believe that all stories put 
out by the British and French of tortures, mutilations, assaults, etc., by Germans are utter 
rubbish.* — Joseph Medill Patterson." 

CYRIL BROWN, of the Frenziedly Anti-German New York "Times." 

"Of barbarism or brutality the writer saw no signs, either here or at other French vil- 
lages occupied by the Germans. The behavior of the common soldiers toward the natives is 
exemplary and in most cases kindly. There are many touches of human interest. I saw 
about a hundred of the most destitute hungry townsfolk, mostly women with little children 
hanging around one of the barracks at the outskirts of the town until after supper the Ger- 
man soldiers came out and distributed the remnants of their black bread rations to them. It 
is not an uncommon sight to see staff officers as well as soldiers stopping on the streets to 
hand out small alms to the begging women and children. Moreover, they pay for all they 
consume. I was astonished to see even the detectives paying real money for what they drank. 
Several tradesmen told me they had suffered chiefly at the hands of the French soldiers them- 
selves, who had helped themselvs freely to their stock before retreating, without paying, say- 
ing it was no use to leave good wine for the Prussian swine. 

"Simply astounding is the display of power on the part of Germany. Nobody doubted 
its military power, but more astonishing is its economic power and even more its moral 
strengfth. The behavior of the German people is overwhelming. Immediately after the declar- 
ation of war the sale of alcohol in every form was stopped. I myself have seen not only hun- 
dreds, but thousands and thousands of soldiers passing me in endless streams without hear- 
ing one profane word or without having seen one inebriated soldier. Off and on one noted 
expressions of irony, but never one of frivolity." — Prof. Hall. 

A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 

"The "Leader" does not believe these stories to be true, and will not publish them. 

"The manner of life of the many Germnas in this community gives the lie to any charge 
that the German people are barbarous. America has no bei»:ter citizens than those of German 
birth. 

"No race of people surpasses the Germans in humanity, kindness of heart and consider- 
ation for those about them. It is impossible that the charges sent out against them could 
be true. 

"The "Leader" believes that the allegations of atrocities are baseless, and are issued 
merely to influence American opinion against the Germans." — Pittsburg Leader, Sept. 16, 1914. 
• *••*•** 

Says Dr. Bernard Dernberg, one of the world's greatest intellects: 

"That has been Germany's consistent method with her colonies. We have made free gift to 
them of all our knowledge, exterminating the scourges which had decimated them before we 
rescued them, bettering- their conditions in every plossible particular, and have been quite 
content to wait long and patiently for such return for these services as they may b^ able to 
render some time. 

"Brutal with our colonies? No! Was it brutality or elevated civilization w'hich led us 
to send to Africa for the relief of suffering native populations the celebrated Dr. Koch, who 
discovered the cholera bacillus and the dread secret of sleeping sickness and aided England 



84 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

in her efforts toward extermination of the cattle fever? He spent about a year on Tse-Tse 
Island, in Victoria Nyanza, where the sleeping scourgre had killed off every single native res- 
ident. 

"After Koch's discovery we called in Ehrlich, the discoverer of salvarsan, who helped to 
stop the progress of the plague, compounding a special and very effective remedy. We con- 
structed great hospital camps, in which all those who were attacked were isolated, to the pres- 
ervation of their neighbors, if not to their own salvation. 

"Germany spends more than $1,000,000 a year in medical service in her colonies. Is this 
the evidence of ruthlessness and greed? I cannot believe America will think so. 

"I, myself, made arrangements of an international character for the fight against the 
sleeping sickness, which was endangering the whole of interior Africa. I was the first Colonial 
Secretary of any European country to go to Africa. It was not an easy journey; it had none 
of the peculiarities of a pleasure jaunt. 

"I penetrated 800 miles from the coast, spending thirty-one days, practically on foot cov- 
ering 400 miles. With the assistance of the missions vast good was accomplished with the 
native women, who were being decimated by a veneral scourge, were giving birth to un- 
healthy children, and up to that time had refused to let a doctor touch them. 

"My own home is now a hospital. My family is living in its basement. The balance of 
the structure is devoted to the sick and wounded. 

"War is terrible, but the spirit which this war— this unjust and wicked, this utterly un- 
sought war — has aroused in Germany is beautiful. 

"To me, who am familiar with the facts, the reports which have been published in this 
country, attributing heartlessness and cruelty to |he German troops and populace, are so 
grotesque that they make me wonder if I read right. I cannot understand this talk of Ger- 
man cruelty. It never has been exhibited in the German character. It is not there." 

Says RicARDA Hugh, considered by many as the world's leading authoress: 

"When liars, or unknowing ones, accuse the German soldier of cruelties against innocent 
private persons, or of ruthless destruction of works of art, Germany in such case need not 
stoop to answer or defend herself; Germany owns ruins wantonly destroyed by enemies, but 
she has no works of art in her museums *that were stolen from conquered enemies. The art 
of every country is so dear to the German that certainly many people in Germany, and also 
many German soldiers, have trembled for beautiful Belgian cities, although not to the ex- 
tent they have trembled for human lives in danger. 

"For centuries General Tilly lias been accepted as the destroyer of Magdeburg, and yet it 
was he who saved the cathedral from the flames, although probably less in order to save the 
work of art than the sacred edifice, and the consciousness that he had succeeded in doing so 
probably was and had to be sufficient for him; thus after this war is over, that which was 
saved will bear evidence for the Germans or at least will aff)f)rd them satisfaction." 

"ATROCITIES" IMPOSSIBLE TO GERMANS. 

"As for the "cruelties" attributed to the Germans, you know the sort of men who com- 
pose the German army. You know that in its ranks there stand the representatives of the 
entire nation, not mere hired soldiers, as in England. 

"The Germans are unlike the bi'utal and uneducated Serbs and Cossacks. They are incap- 
able of the barbarities alleged against them by a lying press. Where no attacks have been 
made on them by non-combatants in French and Belgian towns, such places have been un- 
molested. Payment has been given, or assured, for all the foodstuff requisitioned and for 
damage done. 

*But when civilians have fired on them from the windows, or have been guilty of abomin- 
able attacks on the wounded, as was the case in Belgium, then stern reprisals have been 
taken." — John L. Stoddard. 

"The German anti-alcoholists are rejoicing at this earliest tribute to their principles, which 
were at first laughed at and then pitied, but triumphed in the days of the mobilization." — -Vital 
Issue. 

"Lady Acton and other English sojourners have testified in a letter to the "Times," to 
"the kind of treatment which they and many of their compatriots, who were detained in Ger- 
many, have received, and have requested the false reports which have been published in re- 
gard to the ill-treatment of English people by the Germans be corrected." 

"Mr. William Holman, the Premier of New South Wales, was asked in Parliament what 
his government intended to do by way of protesting against German atrocities in Belgium, 
and replied that his government had no intention of committing itself to recording a protest 
against anything based upon hearsay."— Sydney Morning Herald. 

Says Mrs. Effie Reenie Osborne, Regent, Mary Desha Chapter, Daughters 
American Revolution: 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. ] '\ 85 

"German hospitality: let me say some words about that. Mtost of the people, In fact all 
of the strangers left in Bad-Liebenstein, were entirely without money. I know an English 
lady who had 20 pfennigs and the amount of her riches was about what others possessed. 
The German hotel-keepers in Liebenstein were keeping all the English and Russians and gav« 
them the same board they had been accustomed to, absolutely free of charge, saying they 
dould be reimbursed when the war was over. 

"The incredible kindness of the Germans to the stranded Americans was particularly 
evidenced in Berlin. In those first days when all the Americans were without means due to 
the uselessness of American Express or Letters of Credit, a meeting was called in Berlin for 
immediate relief. Many hotels there gave Americans free board , private citizens opened 
their homes and everything was done to make the pressure at this time as bearable as pos- 
sible." 

From the Technical World Magazine: 

"Wherever German invaders in the present war penetrate they are particularly careful 
to preserve park trees. Cavalrymen are instructed not to tie their horses to trees for fear 
they might gnaw the bark, and the artillery is careful not to cannonade groves in a city." 

Listen at this. It sounds almost as good as if spoken by that "Master States- 
man," the humanitarian Britisher, Asquith himself, eh? It was spoken by the bar- 
barian Bismarck 34 years ago, and is an index to the German heart and the Ger- 
man way of putting into practical execution the human impulses of that heart: 

"The pi-esent bill intends to keep the sense of human dignity alive, which even the poor- 
est German should enjoy if I have my way. He should feel that he is no mere almstaker 
when he is sick or old, but that he possesses a fund which is his very own. No one shall 
have the right to dispose of it, or to take it from him, however poor he may be. This fund 
will open for him many a door and secure for him better treatment. 

"A state, however, it seems to me, which is composed very largely of Christians, should 
fet itself be permeated with the principles which it confesses, and especially with those which 
have to do with helping our neighbors, and show sympathy for the lot which is threatening 
the old and the sick." 

In fine, as this trenchant German writer puts it: 

"Teutonic Barbarians, Vandals!! Such are the terms which French and English speak- 
ing trumpets are shrieking into the ears of the world. After lies come calumnious oppro- 
brium. By nobody is the fate of Belgium, the burning down of every building, the destruc- 
tion of Louvain, so deeply deplored as by the German people, and our brave troops who felt 
bound to carry out to the bitter end the chastisement they were compelled to inffict. Ger- 
many and her Army aimed to carry on a war, which was forced upon them, with a vigtor 
tempered by humanity, such as the German nation is trained in; to observe carefully the 
rules of international law and at least to soften the horrors of battle. It has long been im- 
pressed upon all German minds and again and again reiterated in their hours of military in- 
structions that soldiers must fight only against soldiers, that private citizens were to be left 
unmolested. We, all of us, had taken this for granted. Could it be possible we should sud- 
denly forget all this, and from mere bloodthirstiness have shot down unarmed civilians, and 
for the sake of robbery and destruction reduced to ashes villages and towns? Our jilouth go 
to war with the watchword 'Germany first of all.' They could not understand that the in- 
habitants of captured towns and villages would lodge in their backs the murderous bullet as 
soon as it was dark, firing at them from windows and cellars. Soldiers were almost stupi- 
fied by such atrocities, and as soon as their officers gave the order would of course wreak 
punishment on the offenders, set fire to the houses from which their comrades had been shot, 
and execute the offenders. 

" 'Necessity knows no law,' was the saying of the Imperial Chancellor. And was it not 
bitter necessity which forced us into war in which we were compelled to act with severity? 
And was it in accordance with duty to humanity which we hear so hypocritically appealed to 
that Russians, French, and English have all fallen upon us and our allies, that England has 
even stirred up Japan against us? 

"We suppose that equally fine and humane is this crafty huckster war which England has 
let looPe upon us, by which we are cut off from foreign countries while she endeavors through 
the lying distpatches with which she floods the world to undermine our existence as a nation 
and gather a harvest she has not sown. In the meantime she holds back her cowardly fleet, 
and feels higli glee in trumpery prizes, and captures of non-combatant merchantmen. In this 
the way in which they understand humanity and philanthropy? Who can defend the use by 
English and French armies of the atrocious dum-dum bullets forbidden in war by international 
agreement?. ... Is it humane when the wounded shoot the German soldiers who desire 
to bandage their wounds, or when the French carry off from Saal the wives and children of 
the German officials, and ravage the city of Saarburg, like Huns? And is it in accordance 



86 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

with international law that French fugitives threw bombs onto German territory previous to 
the declaration of war? We have not read in the slanderous tales with which the Allies are 
attempting to disgrace us before the world a single allusion to these atrocities. . . , The 
irony of history which now is dealing so terrible a blow to English hopes will also clear up 
these lying calumnies against the 'Teutonic barbarians.' To the degenerate Romans not only 
those peoples who would not acknowledge their domination, but the Germans also, were bar- 
barians. So long as we were politically helpless and in a high degree needed by Englnad tiD 
fi^ht her battles we were the beloved people of the Poet and Thinker, but as soon as we be- 
came powerful and independent and withdrew from the tutelage of England, we at once were 
changed into barbarians. We can and will submit to this. Two things speak for us — the 
German good conscience and — the convincing might of the German fist." — From Koelnische 
Zeitung. 

And here is how an English paper, the London Labour Leader pithily puts it: 

"We ought surely to remember that we were credited with atrocities pretty much on the 
same level as the German atrocities of today, and that in France pictures of our soldiers toss- 
ing up Boer babies and catching them upon their lance-points were printed; and remembering 
these things, we ought to receive accounts of German atrocities with caution 

"Considering- that Germany is fighting for life against six nations and a horde of sav- 
ages, it is not surprising that her methods of war are brutal — they have to be. Lord Kitchener 
said that war was not fought with rose-water. He has taken care that this war shall not be 
fought with rose-water. He and his fellow Cabinet Ministers are responsible for the fact 
that Japanese and Indians have been brought into a European war, and it is with the con- 
nivance of Britain that Turcos are fighting for France. Britain has lost all claim to be con- 
sidered a civilized nation henceforth. The methods of Turcos and Gurkhas are a horror, and 
the press do not attempt to deny the fact, but expect us to applaud stories of Turcos cutting 
off the heads of wounded Germans and flourishing them about. It is not long since France 
denied that she had any intention of using Turcos in European warfare 

"But this is a holy war, and a war of civilization! As General Villa, the Mexican bandit, 
has recently expressed his sympathy with Britain and his horror at German atrocities, It is 
a matter for surprise that he has not been asked to join the rest of our gentle and civilized 
Allies." — The London "Labour Leader." 

ANOTHER LIE NAILED. 
The Hon. Brand Whitlock, American Minister to Belgium: 

'"I can assure you there is no ground for alarm reported in your telegram this morning that 
soldiers billeted in houses are fed with food provided by our Commission. The German au- 
thorities are respecting our work and are keeping all their engagements, and the organization 
of the Commission, with its almost scientific methods of distribution, is such that It is prac- 
tically impossible for our food to go to any but the suffering portion of the population." 

Mr. Herbert C. Hoover, Chairman of the American Commission for Relief, re- 
ports as follows: 

"The Germans state that the people of Belgium are normally dependent on imports for 
five-sixths of their substance. The Germans have not the slightest objection to the Belgians 
or any one else importing foodstuffs into Belgium. It was not the Germans who blocked the 
over-sea supply. There is no obligation on them to feed a population which could through the 
normal course of trade obtain subsistence. 

"We are meeting with no obstruction by the military authorities. Not a loaf of bread 
nor a spoonful of salt has been taken, and stringent orders have been given that we are not 
to be interfered with. We meet with respect and assistance from all quarters." 

"By this time the town had begun to feel that the invasion of the Germans was not at- 
tended by all the atrocities they were supposed to be guilty of. German soldiers had entered 
the food stores and were buying like any other customers. In fact Louvain had a rush of 
business such as it had not had for years. I think Louvain went to bed that night feehng 
as we did, that, whatever the German invasion might portend, the army was made up 
of pretty good fellows." — World's Work — strong anti-German. 

"Two of the richest newspaper proprietors in London have spent hundreds of pounds try- 
ing to find a mutilated Belgian child. They found one, and then some unfeeling doctor oame 
and proved that the child had been born so." — Vital Issue. 

AN ATROCIOUS ENGLISH LIE RUN TO EARTH. 
(From the New York Herald.) 
To the Editor of The Herald: 

"On November 14 you published in your columns a letter which I had sent you, headed 
"German Atrocities" and reading as follows: 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. 



87 



"I quote from a letter I received from my sister in London: 'We went to a crowded meet- 
ing * • * last Friday and one of the ministers there said that if we could not believe what we 
heard about the inhuman way In which the Germans treat the Belgians, to go to the Ale^:- 
andra Palace * * • where there were ten children with two hands between thi lot and men 
with their eyes gouged out.' 

"I wrote this letter in good faith, believing the contents to be true, as the information 
given emanated from a minister, and by signing this communication with my full name I 
have assumed the responsibility for its publication. 

"A German gentleman of this city has taken up this matter and made an investigation 
of it, which resulted in his receiving a statement from the War Refugees Committee in Lon- 
don, of which Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Vendome is the president, reading as fol- 
lows: 

" 'Having heard that many stories have been circulated with regard to the treatment the 
Belgians have received at the Germans' hands, and that there are many cases of mutilation 
at the Alexandra Palace, I write to say that I have been working at the palace the whole of 
the time that refugees have been there and during that time there has not been a single case 
of mutilation, either of man, woman or child. 

"If you care to write to Dr. Cuff, head of the work at Alexandria Palace, he will confirm 
what I say. 

^ ELLA M. KASTOR.' 

"That letter speaks for itself. 

"In justice to the German army I request you to please publish this letter in order to right 
a wrong, which it is the duty of every correct thinking man to do in a case like this. 

"CHARLES H. WATERS. 

"New York City, Jan. 1, 1915." 



Perhaps the loudest lamen- 
tations against German atroc- 
ity was with reference to the 
destruction of part of Louvain 
for sniping. Head-lines like 
the alliteration "Lost Lou- 
vain" were rife. It was ex- 
citedly alleged that the whole 
city was destroyed. Here is a 
correct official picture of the 
extent of the damage done. 



Ejcplanation 

All portions not 
shaded arc intact 




HOW ENGLAND MANUFACTURES "ATROCITY" STORIES. 

In London recently a young English woman, Kate Hume, was sentenced to 
three months in the workhouse for forgery in falsifying reports of German atroci- 
ties some time early in September. Inspired by hysterical hatred, she supplied the 
London Times with two letters alleged to have been written by Belgian priests, in 
which it was stated that her sister, Grace, serving as a hospital nurse in France, 
had suffered horrible mutilation by the amputation of both breasts by German 
soldiers. The Times published this tale of horror, and it was promptly cabled to 
the New York papers. No denial was ever made until Grace Hume, the reputed 



88 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

victim, turned up unharmed at her home in one of the suburbs of London and the 
priests' letters were found to be forgeries. 



The Westminster "Gazette" had a detailed report of a most revolting atrocity which it 
was asserted occurred in Belgium. It related to an English nurse, alleged to have been killed 
by Germans with bestial cruelty. The following night the Westminster "Gazette" stated that 
the story was a hoax, that the nurse in question was actually in England and had never been to 
Belgium. 



VANDALISM. 

REPORT OF GERMAN COMMISSION ON ART DESTRUCttlON. 

"The duty of protecting Belgian art treasures was imposed upon this body of men, and 
their report traverses the ground passed over by the conquering forces, and a careful esti- 
mation of the esnuing damage is attempted. Church after church in Louvain, the town hall, 
the library, and whatever noteworthy possessions the city has or had were examined, and, 
'all lovers of art will rejoice to hear that, with the exception of the library, not only prac- 
tically everything has been saved, but, barring the buildings themselves, everything is in 
faultless condition.' 

"All these art treasures have been gathered into the town hall, and are under the strict- 
est surveillance of the Commandant. 

"The last-named houses were purposely dynamited by our brave miners, hastily sum- 
moned by the Comniandant, in order to prevent the town hall from catching fire. 

"I repeat that all art treasures and church possessions have been saved. This is due 
mainly to the efforts of I^ieutenant Thelmann, Councillor in the Railroad Ministry, who, to- 
gether with a subaltern officer, a student of art history, saved the contents of St. Peter's 
Church, whose upper part was in flames. 

"In Liege we visited all the churches and art collections. The Church of St. Jacob, a mag- 
nificent late-Gothic edifice, with its handsomely painted, groined vaulting, and its gorgeous 
decoration recalling the Moresque style, has remained untouched, and it is especially grati- 
fying to find that the stained-glass windows, among the finest in the world, have been pre- 
;served. 

^'The same is also the case with all the other churches. 

'"The imposing treasury of St. Paul's, with its famous golden expiatory gift of Charles 
Ihe Bold, donated after the destruction of Liege in 1468, and the important Gothic reliquary 
of St. Lambert rest untouched in their chest. All the museums of Liege, foremost among 
them the Musee d'Ansembourg, which we inspected under the leadership of its director, are 
in precisely the same condition as before the war. All necssary instructions, with a view to 
jTuarding against theft, have been given. 

"On our way back we stopped, in spite of a heavy downpour, at Huy. There we wer* 
miainly interested in the Church of Notre Dame, with its beautiful Bethlehem portal in early 
Gothic style, and the handsome rose-window. The four reliquary chests formerly in the 
church treasury had been, according to the statements of the priests, sent to Antwerp." 

With the German Army in its Dash Toward Paris — By Arthur Sweetser, in the Rabid Anti- 
German "Outlook" for January 27th, 1914. 

"In all fairness, however, I believe that information concerning the general conduct of 
the German army, at least in France, should come out. 

"The German machine was severe with all the severity of which such a bloodless organ- 
ization is capable. It was in a hostile country, and could not afford to trifle. Otherwise its 
men would have been at the mercy of the first native who took to sniping. In all the cities I 
visited leading men had been taken as hostages against the good behavior of the city, and 
notices posted on all the walls flared out the penalties of civilian resistance. 

" 'Correct,' though the German attitude generally was towards the natives, nothing was 
allowed to impede in the least the chances of that fearful military machine. Hotels, houses, 
and food were commandeered without regard to the effect on the civilian population. It 
made no difference whether the French were made homeless and hungry; that was an in- 
evitable consequence of war and could not be considered when the life of the Fatherland wa» 
at stake. 

"In scores of cases I saw Germans pay for what they got, and in no case where it was 
possible to pay did I see them refuse to pay. 

"During all my trip with von Kluck's division, I saw only two cases of drunkennesB. 
Both were mild cases and did not prevent their owners from leaving in time to get to bar- 
racks at the stated hour of nine. 

"Atrocities and barbarities I most conscientiously believe did not exist In any grener&l 
way along von Kluck's line of march. Startling though this statement will <be to many, I most 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. 89 

unreservedly say that not a single instance or indication came to my attention during all th* 
trip. 

"From the fact that the women in cities and towns where the Germans had been for any 
time seemed to have overcome their fear, I firmly believe that by and large the Germans were 
entirely respectful. 

"I do not wish to convey the idea that the Germans made a studied effort for French 
friendship, for that is not the case. 

"I have aimed in this article to show the absolute relentlessness and devastation >of the 
German machine, while at the same time to bring out the good points of the individual Ger- 
man soldier. I do not agree with Germany's general point of view, but at the same time do 
not feel it just that her army should be so maligned as it has been by stories of atrocities, 
looting and criminality." 



The recent crushing reply of James O'Donnell Bennett, the superb corres- 
pondent of the Chicago Tribune to Sir Conan Doyle. 

"My testimony is the testimony of an American who loves England and who has not a 
drop of German blood in his veins. What things I have seen I have here set down because I 
believe that what raises the man of my calling above the level of a scribbler is the telling of 
the truth. 

"On August 20 I was in Brussels and watched for three days and a half the passing of 
thousands of German troops through the city. I was in many parts of Brussels for many 
hours of that strained and exciting time and I neither heard of nor saw an act of outrage or 
of pillage. I did not see even an act of rudeness on the part of either population or the invad- 
ing soldiery. What I did see was friendly visiting between groups of civilians and soldi«r« 
at 7 o'clock in the evening. That was four hours after the entry began, 

******** 

"The next day we rode and marched by ourselves through many Belgian villages and 
towns. We heard stories of unprovoked atrocities when we visited with the inhabitants, but 
always the scene was "in the next village, Messieurs." Arriving in the next village, we re- 
ceived the same assurance, and so on all that day. Finally a Belgian Burgomaster told us 
that he had been investigating the reports for two days and had come to believe that they 
were frantic inventions. 

"But we did have ample opportunity to observe how the German soldiers behaved them- 
selves. We found their conduct admirable. Even to five men whom they had gathered in as 
suspected spies they were considerate. They did not bully us, and they shared with us their 
food and drink. 

"On those trips I had scores of opportunities to observe the iron discipline of the German 
troops, their sobriety, their scrupulousness in paying for meals at French inns, and their good 
understanding with the civil population in France, and it is of these matters that I would 
make some statement in detail. 

DOYLE'S CHARGES AGAINST GERMANS 
"Mr. Bennett deals categorically with the charges. He says: 

" 'In the opening paragraph of your contribution to the "Chronicle" you say that 
" 'A time has now come when in cold blood, with every possible restraint, one is Justi- 
fied in saying that since the most barbarous campaigns of Alva in the lowlands, or the excesses 
of the Thirty Years' War, there has been no such deliberate policy of murder as has been 
adopted m this struggle by the German forces. This is the more terrible shice these forces 
are not like those of Alva, Parma, or Tilly, bands of turbulent and mercenary soldiers, but 
they are the nation itself, and their deeds are condoned or even applauded by the entire na- 
tional press.' 

TRIBUTE TO AN ENEMY. 

"For more than three months, I have followed the reputable Cologne and Aachen papers 
on the war, and I have neither read nor heard read any such condonernent or applause. Natur- 
ally what they do not concede they do not have to condone, and the German press does not con- 
cede that German troops have outraged the laws of civilized warfare. 

"You say in your next paragraph that: 

" 'War may have a beautiful as well as a terrible side and be full of touches of human 
sympathy and restraint which mitigate its unavoidable horrors,' and you cite instances of 
this from the mediaeval wars between England and France and from the campaigns in the 
Peninsula in proof of that assertion. 

"And then you ask: 

" 'Could one imagine Germans making war in such a spirit as this?' 

"I cannot only imagine it, but I have seen it. 

"I thought it a beautiful thing to see my friend. Captain Franz von Kempis, of the 
Koenigin Augusta Garde grenadier regiment No. 4, standing uncovered on a chill October 



90 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

afternoon before the grave of the French officer who today is known throughout the German 
armies in northern France as the "brave Alvares." That soldier was commander of the Fort 
des Ayvelles near Charleville, and when the garrison refused to make the stand against the 
Germans wliicli he felt its honor demanded, he killed himself. The victors buried him with 
military honors in a lovely evergreen grove behind the fort and over his grave they erected a 
beautiful cross fashioned with patient skill from wood. And that cross bears this inscription 
in German text: 



" 'Here rests the brave commandant. He was not able to live longer than 
the fortress entrusted to him. 

" 'By this simple cross of wood the German soldier honors in thee the hero 
of duty. 

" 'Second Landwehr Pioneers' Company of the Eighth Army Corps.' 

" 'September, 1914.' 



"Some day in happier times I hope to show you the photograph of this shrine place under 
the evergreens. In late October the German wachtmeister in charge of the little force guard- 
ing Ayvelles was keeping the grave green with fresh boughs. 

KINDNESS TO FRENCH WOUNDED. 

"It seemed to me a beautiful thing to see French soldiers kissing the hands of German 
doctors who ministered to them in the hospital at Laon, and I have seen few finer, sweeter 
deeds in my life than the action of a German doctor who placed an arm under the back of a 
suffering and distraught Frenchman, and drawing him to his breast, said: 'I give you my 
word that you are not going to die, but you must help me to make you well by keeping your- 
self calm.' 

"Two big tears rolled down the Frenchman's cheeks, and there was a look of infinite 
gratitude in his eyes when the doctor gently lowered him to the pillow. 

"I thought it beautiful and touching to see two big German soldiers sitting in the front 
room of a house in the town of Betheniville, not many leagues from Rheims, while a little 
French girl, perhaps twelve years old, gave them a lesson in French. It was they who seemed 
the children, and she the adult, so awkward and simple and attentive were they, and so moni- 
torlike and strict with them was she. 

"The French children who were begging pfennigs with pathetic.pretty histrionism from 
the princes, generals, majors, captains and private soldiers who came and went through the 
railway square in the French town where great headquarters of the German armies are lo- 
cated seemed to me to afford decisive enough proof that these little ones were not much 
afraid of Mr. Kipling's 'Huns.' I noticed with pleasure that almost never did they meet with 
a refusal. 

"And again, I could not convince myself that much personal rancor was existing between 
German invaders and Belgian non-combatants, when a German officer, whose automobile 
was already well filled, stopped the car on a country road to ask a Belgian doctor whether he 
could not give him a lift to his destination. 

"And in desolated Dinant I both wondered and smiled when I saw Over Lieutenant Dr. 
Lehmann of Dresden busily helping the Belgian mistress of the inn to set the dinner table 
when a party of shivering officers and correspondents arrived unexpectedly one chill night 
in September. The eager officer was perhaps more of a bother than a help to the hostess, but 
she took his activity in good part, and there was much laughter and chaffing between them. 
He had made his quarters at the inn for many days, and every Belgian about the place seemed 
fond of him. A month later I was there again for a night, and the first thing I did was to 
ask for the Over Lieutenant. 'Oh, he is departed, — he is gone these many days,' cried all the 
women folk in chorus, and seemed genuinely sorry. 

GERMANS FEED DESTITUTE. 

"It was at Dinant, too, that I twice studied the method by which the German army is 
daily providing 600 destitute families of the town with bread, meat, and coffee, charging them, 
absolutely nothing, while families which can pay obtain food at cost. Meat is delivered to the 
local butchers, and German sergeants stand by in the shops to see that the people are not 
overcharged. In Brussels I had heard an assistant to the Belgian Burgomaster ask the Ger- 
man commandant of the city. Major Bej'er, for 10,000 sacks (that is, 2,220,000 pounds) of flour 
for the poor. I heard the official stamp come crashing down on the typewritten request which 
the official also submitted, and I saw the paper returned to the Belgian functionary with a 
smile of acquiescence. 

"To go back to Dinant. I saw little human tokens, like the words chalked in German on 
the doors of a poor Belgian house, 'Here lives a grandmother, ninety-eight years old, keep 
out,' and on the door of another Belgian house the words, also in German, 'Here is a new 
baby, keep quiet.' 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. 91 

"Within a stone's throw of the first of the forts which the Germans took in the fighting 
around Liege, I saw in October the grave of a Belgian soldier. It was strewn with green 
boughs and above it was a wooden cross on which had been lettered in black print, 'Here 
lies a Belgian soldier.' The humble but, as times go, sufficient memorial was the work of 
German soldiers now guarding the ruins of a fort around which was some of the hardest 
fighting of the war. 

"Such things. Sir, I have seen. 

"In your article in tfie "ChrorVcle" you cite many instances of atrocities, but in no one 
statement do you give the names of either the accuser or the accused. 

"In the citation of humane deeds I can be more explicit than that. I can give you the 
name of Mrs. Mannesmann, who, struck to the heart by the agonies of French soldiers writh- 
ing and jerking with tetanus in German-superintended hospitals at Hirson and Laon, under- 
took a perilous and exhausting journey back to Germany in order to purchase the serum for 
tetanus and convey it back to France. She is the wife of one of the brothers Mannesmann of 
the great German firm of Mannesmann-Mulag. That noble woman I have had the honor to 
meet and, since she speaks as good English as you or I can write, I was able to talk under- 
standingly with her. During our talk she uttered not one rancorous word concerning the Eng- 
lish or the French. Indeed, Sir, it is only within recent weeks of the war I have heard op- 
probrious words fall from the lips of Germans when they spoke of the Allies. 

AN ENGLISH WOMAN'S TESTIMONY. 

"Let me also give you the name of Miss Bessie Sommerville, an English governess in the 
family of Baron Mumm von Schwartzenstein of Aachen. That lady wrote a letter, which 
was forwarded with letters written by English prisoners of war to their families in England, 
and in it she said: 

" T wish you would let the English papers know of the kindness and consideration we 
English receive at all times from the Germans. It makes me furious, and at the same time 
sad, to read the things that are being said of Germans in English papers. I mean how they 
treat their prisoners, and so forth. They are vile lies. I have plenty of opportunity of know- 
ing how Belgian, French and English prisoners are treated. I have heard only of kindness 
and courtesy, and all prisoners that have passed through Aix-la-Chapelle must say the same. 
I only hope the Germans will have the same to say when they return from England. I couM 
write much more, but space doesn't allow.' " 

GERMANS DON'T LIE. 

"And so the story goes on. Mr. Bennett effectually refutes the 'atrocity' stories, shows 
that the Germans were kindly in their treatment of the Belgian and French people, riddles 
the story about the complete destruction of Louvain and of the spire of the Cathedral at 
Rheims. Towards the conclusion of the article he says: 

" 'The Germans are not liars. They are so loyal to the truth that their loyalty sometimes 
lapses into gross bluntness of speech. They call a spade a spade, and their bluntness some- 
times leads them to use a crude word when another would do as well. They consider a lie 
not clever, but ignominious." ' 



THE TRUTH WILL OUT. 
From Fatherland, February 24th 

We print below the admission of the British Foreign Office in its report to 
the American Embassy in London that it has no evidence of German atrocities in 
Belgium as the result of its investigation into the stories related by Belgian fugi- 
tives. The dispatch is copied from the World: 

Washington, Jan. 27. (Special to The World.) — Of the thousands of Belgian 
refugees who are now in England not one has been subjected to atrocities by 
German soldiers. 

This in effect, is the substance of a report received at the State Department 
from the American Embassy in London. The report states that the British Gov- 
ernment thoroughly had investigated thousands of reports to the effect that 
German soldiers had perpetrated outrages on the fleeing Belgians. 

During the early period of the war colunms of British newspapers were 
filled with the accusations. (And reprinted in the American papers in full.) 

Agents of the British Government, according to the report from the American 
Embassy at London, carefully investigated all of these charges; they interviewed 
the alleged victims and sifted all the evidence. 



92 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

As a result of the investigations the British Foreign Office notified the Amer^ 
ican Embassy that the charges appeared to be based upon hysteria and natural 
prejudice. The report added that many of the Belgians had suffered severe hard- 
ships, but they should be charged up against the exigencies of war rather than 
the brutalitv of the individual German soldiers. 



BREAKS OUT IN A NEW SPOT. 



I thought that the Piebalds were going to drop the atrocity racket and work 
the Belgian neutrality violation (until the people should read No. 123 of the 
English and French Official Books), and then fall back on their last line of de- 
fenses, viz.: Militarism. But, it seems they are determined to revamp those musty, 
fungous atrocity lies. 

Having worked the atrocity racket for all it was worth; having forestalled 
all the atrocities they themselves, their piebald allies, and hired black-and-tan 
hellions will certainly commit if they ever get the chance; having inflamed all 
of their own Tomlinsons and riff-raff, and all the over-credulous Irishmen who 
could possibly be fired to the enlisting point; and having caught all available 
American suckers; the English now insist: let's have a truce to this atrocity 
business — there's nothing to it anyway. 

But there is something to it; a whole lot. I don't believe in the doctrine of 
fighting the Devil with fire under all circumstances; but when he throws at me 
the faggot to burn me up; dead sure, I propose to grab that same faggot and hurl 
it back at him and burn him up with it if possible. 

Now, honest reader, I am going to do a little atrocitating myself for your 
edification. If you are a bloomin' Britisher or a hopeless American slob, you 
will protest, I know. You will say : "O, that is all past, a dead issue, let bygones 
be bygones — of course, none of that atrocity stuff is true." 

Already their leading American press pewees and toadying tomtits are 
chirruping that note. For instance, the February number of the American Re- 
view of Reviews under the heading: "How Stories of Atrocities are Invented," 
says: 

"One of the lessons taught by the war is the general unreliability of newspaper accounts of 
atrocities committed by soldiers. As a rule they have been proved to be purely imaginative 
creations, part of that output which is the special contribution of war to literature. 

"On the other hand, we are told that the stories against the German soldiers rest upon an 
equally flimsy foundation. Houston Stewart Chamberlain, in an article called "Deutschland," 
scouts the idea that German soldiers are capable of committing atrocities. 

"What other nation, he asks, has expert authorities on art accompanying the armies to 
see to it that when a city is occupied its art treasures are properly taken care of? When 
Rheims fell these experts took the German soldiers through the cathedral, and tlie soldiers all 
crowded around them, eager to learn and to see. Could such men commit outrages on human 
beings or wantonly destroy works of art? The present charges against the German soldiers 
are as baseless as those that were current in the war of 1870, which, in the matter of spread- 
ing false reports, furnishes an exact parallel to what is taking place now." 

Of course this is all a cunning ruse intended to divert attention from the 
atrocity lies the English have been sowing the world with, and prevent their 
weeding out; for, lo, just as this announcement appears in a recent Fatherland: 

"American Tourists Abused in Germany — Men and Women Shot Down in the Streets of 
Berlin — American Women Publicly Stripped and Searched. (Declared a lie by all returning 
Americans.) 

"German Atrocities in Belgium. Women and children wantonly maimed. Red Cross 
nurses have their feet and hands cut off. Towns sacked and buirned. (This worked for a 
long time. Last week an American press association cabled its representative in London: 
'Stop sending atrocity stories. Nobody here belileves them.' " — 

Behold! the very next week, February 6th, comes the Literary Digest with the 
statement that France has made a flank movement with another real Yellow Book; 
this time anent German atrocities. Just as with her Yellow Book on the causes 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. 93 

leading up to the war, so this screed has all the ear-marks of English inspira- 
tion and collusion, if not actual collaboration. 

I wouldn't have believed France capable of this last dastardly conduct. 

The usually rather fair Digest purports to be itself somewhat exercised over 
the disclosures; and, to justify its indignation goes somew^hat into details, with- 
out, however, mentioning one specific charge, on direct positive testimony, in 
the French Yellow. It does the public, however, the service of exploding the 
vicious slander of the Crown Prince stealing art works from a lady. 

The Digest mentions incredible details without a hint that specific proof was 
offered. For instance: 

"An old woman of ninety-eigrht was bayoneted in her bed; a boy of fourteen disena- 
boweled; a lad of twelve, picking- potatoes with his father, was shot by his side, and so on. In 
the cellar of a certain house in Nomeny thirteen persons had taken refuge. The Bavarians 
set fire to the house, forced these people to come up into the open, where they were shiot down 
one by one. Among those thus killed were a boy of ten and a girl of three. The report men- 
tions innumerable cases of offenses against w^omen and girls ranging from eleven to eighty- 
nine years, which, of course, cannot be related here." 

All this sounds so Englishy, don't you know — too much like the old line of 
punk we were regaled with from London in the earlier stages to be even a coin- 
cidence. 

The Digest gratuitously vouchsafes that "Some at least of the German officers 
are indulging in practices that everyone might not indorse." This is an inexcus- 
able innuendo, as proven by its own citation in support of the statement, itself 
taken from a German paper. It was very light preventive punishment for snip- 
ing, perhaps the lightest ever administered, — about like a teacher keeping a child 
in a cramped position, and the extract concludes: 

"I was sorry for them, but the method was efficacious. The fire from the houses on our 
flank weakens immediately, and we are able to occupy the opposite house and so are masters 
of the principal street." 

But the Digest is fair enough to explode certain hoary English lies on the 
subject, notably a Belgian mutilation coming via Denmark. (By the way that 
Copenhagen Liar has already distanced the Milan and Rome Liars, and bids fair 
to even eclipse the Petrograd and London past-masters if they don't look to their 
laurels). 

The only specific case of any kind cited on positive authority in the Digest 
is a statement from the Free Press of far off Ottawa, Canada. It seems that a cer- 
tain Mr. E. Alexander Powell in a lecture (the thrifty soul is probably advan- 
tageously capitalizing his gruesomenesses) told of an alleged instance when the 
Belgians had driven the Germans from a town not far from Malines. 

"When the carbineers entered the town they hurriedly searched throug-h houses for 
snipers. One young Belgian officer rushed out of a house with a ghastly look upon his face 
and called to Powell that he had seen something terrible. 

" 'I went into the house with him,' went on the speaker, 'and on the fioor in one of 
the roonxs lay the body of a young woman; she was still breathing, but both her hands had 
been cut off at the wrists and both feet had been cut off at the ankles. These are things I 
have seen with my own eyes and know to be true.' " 

There is no circumstantiality, no sccutiveness of statement even here. The 
name of the town is not given. It is impossible to glean how long the carbineers 
had been gone — surely long enough for one with both hands and feet cut off to 
have ceased breathing. Come to think — it is a clear case of gratuitous revamp, 
having appeared months ago and been duly ridiculed out of court. For shame, 
Literary Digest. 

Furthermore, it is a class of atrocity that is indigenous to only one country. 
England has her Jack-the-Rippers; France has perverts that go these Jacks even 
one better; — but these worthies don't cut off hands and feet. There is only one 
country that contains the brutes that do— and that is BELGIUM. If you don't 
believe it, ask Conan Doyle. So, if the story be true, unquestionably, it was a 
German woman, mutilated by Belgians, a la Congo! 



94 THE \YORLD ON FIRE. 

And the following week, February 13th, the Digest digs up another thrice- 
told tale and revamps it, viz.: the contribution of the "Fighting Cardinal," Mer- 
cier. Now, fighting Bishops and Priests were just as vindictive and vituperative, 
and more abundant on both sides in our Civil War; but what they said in the 
throes of war's mad passions carried little weight. Many ecclesiastics were 
"ruthlessly slain" for spying, sniping, in battle, and by disease germs. Many, 
thought dead, and duly mourned, reappeared, denied their demise, and again 
took their places in propria persona in ecclesiastical and civil life. We don't 
know how many of the Cardinal's enumerated priests may have already (for his 
statement was made long ago) turned up in the flesh and explained (like Mark 
Twain,) that the report of their death w^as slightly exaggerated. Others still in 
the ranks may do so later. Others of them may have been killed in the ranks, or 
may still live there to be killed later. 

Again, the Digest doesn't authenticate that gruesome document. It doesn't 
tell us how it got there in its present form, w^hether the English Censor doctored 
it to suit. 

There is one great merit, however, to the Cardinal's alleged outburst. It at 
least gives names; that is the names of 15 priests. It is the only piece of specifica- 
tion yet offered by the Piebalds. But it failed to say how they were ruthlessly 
slain, or when, or where. 

Moreover, why does it give priests names alone? Why not name a few of 
the women and children. They would have been better sob-fetchers. Perhaps 
the explanation oozes from the accompanying picture in the Digest, a photograph 
of the Cardinal striding along the street with a not altogether beatific expression, 
trying to think up something for one alongside as close as a Siamese twin, said 
one looking with well-staged expectancy for said something, and said one being 
none other than T. P. O'Connor, denounced without stint by the Irish World, 
Gaelic American, and other high-grade patriotic Irish Journals, as a hireling of 
England (they've pseudonymed him Tag Pag); the said Tay Pay silk-hatting it 
among the sorrows of bleeding Belgium, and being flanked, or left-reared, in the 
picture by two other silk-hatters that squint strangely of Irish renegades. As 
doughty Sir Conan so pungently says: "Vow can't fool a kodak." 

Guess after all the whole thing was a frame-up to fire the heart of the Irish 
Catholics and get recruits — and it fizzled out just as it deserved. In fact, the 
Digest's very last words on the subject are this quotation from the N. Y. Evening 
Post: 

"The circulation of this pastoral letter in Ireland ought to be good for 50,000 
recruits." 



ITEMIZED ATROCITATIONISTS. 



As to Japan. We all know they are mere imitators anyhow, stink-apes, the 
Germans have dubbed them. So why take up space with them? It is not worth 
while to mention even Shantung; or Port Arthur, to show how they treated the 
Chinese; or Korea; or even the trumped up trial of 110 native Christians, many 
of them ministers and lay preachers, whom they had tortured and would most 
wantonly have convicted and slain but for timely detection. 

It is likewise a w^aste of w^ords to mention Servia. Everybody knows about 
it: the country that murdered its own King and Queen and threw their mangled 
bodies on a dung-heap; which later murdered the Crown Prince of Austria and 
his wife, thus giving pretext to Russia for starting the present w^ar. 

Then as to FRANCE. She should have kept silent for 1,000 years at least, 
until the memory of St. Bartholomew had partly faded; until meek application for 
the mantle of Charity could have been registered for the rich blood spilt in her 
hideous Revolution; spilt until even the savage soul of Danton, reeled and sickened. 
She is decadent, just as England has been charging for decades; decadent, just like 
England, because of that vitiating Latin infusion. It seems to ultimately cause 
degeneration wherever it intrudes. Her whole history is a clotted tissue of blood; 
and her degenerate, spiritually semi-Cyprian modistes are trying to degenerate 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. 95 

-all the virile segment of the world by prescribing, under the aegis of alleged artis- 
tic effect, styles for women that not merely violate laws of nature, by cramping 
muscles, but laws of the soul by exalting, aye apotheosizing the sexual (not the 
elevated, but the solely carnal, sexual) : by a display, solely for lecherous sug- 
gestion, of all of woman's curves with exaggerated effects in ever^ instance — 
displays that suggest to virgins, aye, young girls, to try to make themselves ap- 
pear not virgins; aye, even to strive for an encientc effect as well. Thank 
God, the German women have decided to repudiate the loathesome wantons for 
all future time. That is at least one good thing this dreadful war has done. 

Let's not take time to mention the Dreyfus Atrocity; the valiant Parisian men 
trampling down their own women and children in the Bazaar fire to save their 
miserable selves; the confiscation of the Austrian "Laenderbank," when the war 
started. These are mere bagatelles. Let's get down to blood. 

Said the New York American of Aug. 25th ( at that time strongly anti-Ger- 
man) : 

"It will never be known how many Germans were killed in Paris during the three-day 
riots of July 30 and 31 and August 1. The crimes of that period, could they but become known, 
^fvould shame the civilized world." 

This statement was made yesterday by Henry M. Zeigler, a Cincinnati millionaire, who 
has made his home in Paris for the last five years. 

"I saw one German driving down the boulevard with a woman in a cab. How the mob 
learned he was a German I do not know, but they upset the cab. The woman fainted and 
was trampled on, but some one finally dragged her away. 

"The man made a gallant fight for his life. With his back to the overturned cab he fought 
<iesperately for several minutes, and he was a big fellow, too. He struck out with his fists, 
right and left, and bowled his assailants over as fast as they got within reach. But he was 
finally overpowered and trampled and stabbed to death by the mob. 

"Every shop over which there appeared a German name was wrecked. 

"I was on the street one evening with a friend. We saw the mob chasing a German. He 
-almost got away but was caught in an alley. My friend recognized one of his employees in 
the mob. The next day he told me his employee had boasted that they not only got the Ger- 
man we saw them after but three others. All were stabbed to death after being beaten into 
insensibility." 

The Eagle (Brooklyn) relates that Furman Clayton of 37 Jefferson Ave., 
Brooklyn, had intended to join a French Rough Rider Corps. His sympathies, 
therefore, must be with the French, and so his account of French cruelties must 
J>e taken at its full value. He said to a reporter: 

"I saw with my own eyes a German soldier killed in one of the police stations at Paris. 
He had been made prisoner after an attempt to blow up a bridge at Nueilly and was taken to 
Paris in a patrol wagon. They took him out of the patrol wagon and into the police station 
where they were asking him questions when he said something that angered the people who 
^were there waiting for their cards. They fell upon the man and killed him. 

"There were two Germans killed upon the boulevards of Paris by French mobs which sim- 
ply tore them to pieces." 

(HOW CIVILIAN HOSTILES ARE TREATED IN BERLIN 

"Little animosity is shown personally towards subjects of hostile countries. There are 
still some thousands of English, Russian and French in Berlin. They walk the treets un- 
molested except that, as in all European countries in war time, they are obliged to report 
regularly, twice weekly, to the police, and suffer no inconvenience." — Fatherland.) 

Those Parisians ought to form an association of the Reincarnated Sons of 
Robespierre. 

♦ *•****** 

But let's leave "That Dear Paree." Let's go to the front. 

"The German official reports state on January 3 that: 'Lately the French have system- 
atically bombarded the villages behind the German front,' and again on January 7: 'In the 
western arena of the war, the French continued yesterday their systematic bombardment of 
villages behind our front. They seem indifferent to the killingr of their own countrymen and 
to the destruction of French homes.' 



96 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



THE HUMANE FRENCH 

(From the Paris "Matin.") 
"Have no pity on these Germans when they fall into your hands, these infamous criminals 
against human laws, who probably constitute the bodyguard of William II, All France would 
protest if it were compelled to have any regard for such prisoners. They are not deserving 
of mercy but should be slaughtered like wild beasts." 

THE RESULT. 

"From headquarters, Gen. von Schiering reported to the Emperor that a field hospital 
at Orchies, in the north of France, was attacked by Franc-Tireurs, (snipers), or irregularly 
armed persons, on September 24. A punitive expedition encountered superior forces and had 
to retreat, leaving thirty-five wounded. 

"On the following day the Bavarian troops met no enemy and found Orchies deserted but 
found there twenty wounded Germans left the day before horribly mutilated. Their noses 
and ears had been cut off and they were suffocated by inserting sawdust into their mouths 
and noses. Correctness of the evidence taken was authenticated by two French priests. 
Orchies thereupon was thoroughly demolished." 




The Gorilla Brigade, from "Lustige Blaetter.' 



The New York ''Times" chides the British censor for not suppressing the 
story of the Tiirco soldier who protested vehemently when from his scanty bag- 
gage there was removed the head of a German soldier which he proposed carry- 
ing back with him to Africa as a souvenir. 

"What will be the verdict of civilization on France's action in using 200,000 African savages 
against white soldiers? Paul Scott Mowrer, special correspondent of the Daily News in the 
zone of the allies' operations, has raised the curtain hitherto so closely drawn over the con- 
duct of Turco and Senegalese soldiers in the French army. In the official dispatches given 
out by the French war office a good deal of space has been devoted to the bravery of these 
brown and black soldiers fighting under the tricolor, while from the German side there have 
been hints of savagery unconfmed. 

"Mr. Mowrer describes what he saw and heard as he followed the allied forces and passed 
among the African regiments. It is not a pleasant picture. The head-hunting Turcos may 
be of much present help to France's hard pushed army, but one may well doubt whether they 
will redound to the nation's future glory when the history of the present war comes to be 
written." — Chicago News, 



ATROCITIES, BARBARIANS, VANDALISM 



97 



No, the French Bureaucrats may rave in yellow all they please; but, here is 
what their boys in the trenches have to say: 

WHAT A FRENCH SOLDIER SAYS: 

"M. le Director: The French wounded who have been under treatment in Pforzheim 
thank you for the service you have rendered them in notifying their families. This action 
is a great mental relief for the wounded, which will contribute greatly to their recovery. It 
makes us happy to express our sincere gratitude to the wonderful organization of this great 
people. A comrade who is lying at death's door, in spite of the painstaking care which we 
have all received, prays to say that his last word will be a word of gratitude and a tribute 
to the great generosity of the German people for their care of the enemy's wounded. 

"Marius Cerde, 92d Inf. Reg." 

Another instance: A French soldier who was treated in a private clinic in Darmstadt, 
left the following card of thanks on his departure for the prison camp: 

"Ferd. Jacquet desires to express his gratitude to the doctor and the ladies of the Red 
Cross and to the female nurses for the careful nursing he has received, with the assurance- 
that he will never forget them. 

"Ferd. Jacquet, Corporal 10th Inf. Reg., Auxonne." 

You can't fool the kodak. The picture below is a German Hospital. On the 
left is a French surgeon ministering to his fellow French prisoners. 




From the Vital Issue. 



"Two little groups, one German and one French, were entrenched within a few yards of 
each other in the Argonne forest. Over them hung that frightful odor that is characteristic 
of war. The wounded were everywhere. The Frenchmen ran up a white flag. 

" 'Will you cease firing for an hour?' they asked. 'Our Lieutenant is dying, and the noise 
pains him.' 

"So the Germans ceased, and in a little more than an hour a young man walked forward 
from the French trenches and bowed like a courtier to the enemy. 

" 'It is over now,' said he. 'We thank you, for we loved him.' 

"And as the French soldier returned to his men the German captain rose in his place,, 
his hand at the salute." — Herbert Corey, in N. Y. "Globe." 



^8 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



Lines by a French University Professor, captured by the Germans: 

"MY NORMANDY" 



These the rude barbarian minions, 

Planning early, planning late. 
To dismember our dominions, 

Filled with envy and with hate? 
Were these homes and pleasant places 

Fashioned by barbarian hands? 
No, I say! No nobler graces 

Ever throve on barren lands. 
Quiet, love of home, submission. 

Faith in God, is what I see; 
Pleasing prospects greet my vision. 

Beautiful as Normandy. 
^When they led us through the city. 

Enemies, cast down in cheer. 
Throngs were watching us in pity. 

And in many an eye a tear. 



Not as chained slaves did they meet us. 

Bent beneath the ruler's rod; 
But as equals did they greet us, 

Brothers still in sight of God. 
Who, then, fanned this conflagration. 

Filled our hearts with fierce distrust 
Of this proud and noble nation. 

Calm and sober, strong, robust? 
France, thy gallant sons are dying. 

And thy fields are desolate; 
Not thy foeman, but a lying 

Friend has sealed thy iron fate. 
Trait' rous friend, thy favor suing. 

Dragged thee down in infamy, 
And, in thy complete undoing. 

My beloved Normandy. 



Coming to BELGIUM. It seems to almost savor of the morbid to hold any of 
those unfortunate people up to the light while they are whelmed in such great 
sorrow. But, in the face of their slanders against the Germans, it should be done 
unflinchingly. I must confess 1 felt a much more poignant distress for them all 
at the outset than I do now; though I still sympathize with them as a whole from 
the strictly human standpoint. There are many fine characters among them, be- 
yond doubt, but they are evidently hopelessly befrenched, as a whole: fickle, 
mercurial, super-impressionable by superficial considerations. Else how could 
they have stood for the mad antic of their fool King (for we will assume he was 
not a knave) in opposing the Germans, delaying them, slaughtering them, mutil- 
ating their wounded while the Germans were simply striving to save their own 
country's life: — and all this after Germany had told England (See No. 123 both 
English and French Official Books) that if she, England, would only hold hands 
off, she, Germany, whatever the consequences, would not march through Bel- 
gium; and England refused! If the Belgians knew of this; then every monster 
that ever stalked the earth in human form were an Angel of Light by the side of 
them. Of course, the Belgians didn't know of it, that is outside of officialdom; 
for, it was withheld from the English public themselves until the Bureaucrats had 
sufficiently tired the cockney heart to insure England's crudest permanent con- 
tinuance of the war. But, though the Belgians knew it not then; at least they 
should know it now, and should get on their knees and beg Germany's forgive- 
ness, and should turn at once against England who brought their horrible fate 
upon them. But the Belgian soldiers are still trying to slaughter the Germans, 
and no indication of such contrition and reparation can be detected anywhere 
among them. The truth is, speaking of them as a whole, they are a degenerate 
bunch — as aforesaid, hopelessly befrenched. 

Says the Fatherland, quoting Mrs. Edmund Kandler, wife of the officer of the 
Belgian steamer, Vaterland: 

"Howling mobs passed through the streets in the early part of the month a.nd attacked 
the German residents, robbing and murdering them. Anyone who looked German or had a 
German name or was suspected of entertaining German sympathies, was a shining mark for 
the mob. No one was spared! Even citizens of forty-five years residence in Antwerp, and 
universally respected were driven out like criminals. The murder of Mr. von Malinkrot cries 
to heaven for vengeance. He was one of Antwerp's benefactors. He was shot dead as a 
German spy. And a man who had been employed for thirty years by the Red Star Line and 
been decorated by King Albert was persecuted like every one else, despite the fact that two 
of his sons were fighting in the Belgian army. 

'The German school, the best school in Antwerp, was the special object of Flemish ven- 
geance, as also the German Seamen's Home." 

The "Fatherland" also mentions "the cowardly attacks on helpless women and children 
in Antwerp, where the stevedores in one case snatched an infant from the arms of a fugitive 
German woman and drowned it before her eyes. No particulars are given of the outrages 
<;ommitted upon the German troops by non-combatant civilians after a place had been evac- 
\iated." 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. m 

The following is a letter of a German surgeon attached to the Red Cross, re- 
ceived in New York, vouched for by the Fatherland: 

•'At the hands of men, women and half-grown boys our troops have experienced here all 
the horrors usually attributed to savages. Belgian non-combatants are blazing away at ev- 
erything German from every house and every thicket with perfectly fanatical hatred. Duringr 
the very first days we had a number of dead and wounded from assaults by civilians, women 
as well as men. Day before yesterday a German had his throat cut from ear to ear in bed 
during the night; another house displayed the Red Cross flag; five men were quartered there. 
The next day all five were found assassinated. 

"Yesterday morning we found in a village in front of Verviers a single soldier, his hands. 
tied behind his back with both eyes gouged out. A motor car from Liege day before yes- 
terday stopped in a village; a young woman stepped up close to the chauffeur, suddenly put 
a pistol to his head and killed him. Of course, such acts are promptly followed by the exe- 
cution of the criminals, but neither this nor the burning of their houses deters the inhabi- 
tants. Of the wounded under my care several had wounds I could not account for**** (De- 
scription omitted because unprintable.) Two of my patients have birdshot each in one eye; 
a serious wound of the wrist was inflicted while the troops in passing a hedge in the dark 
were fired upon by a concealed sniper at such short range that the powder marks were left 
on the skin. Another had his right arm so badly lacerated with birdshot fired at close range 
in the dark that his arm had to be immediately amputated. 

"At Gemmenish, an hour's tramp from Aix-la-Chapelle, an automobile sanitary column 
was fired upon in mass from the snipers by the villagers last Wednesday. The escort of hus- 
sars was too weak, but two of the miscreants were seized and shot, and the house from which 
most of the shots were fired was burned. The Red Cross on our sleeves and wagons affords 
the surgeons no protection. In several engagements it happened that wounded men carried 
out of the firing lines, and others being conveyed to the field hospitals in the rear, were 
butchered in cold blood by the peasants from the villages." 

"A gentleman acting for a large German firm in Antwerp makes affidavit that he saw 
the German barmaids in Antwerp stripped by the mob and dragged through the streets by 
their hair. He also testifies that in making his escape from the city he saw the body of a 
German woman in a public place. She had been hacked to death, and Belgian viragoes were 
kicking her lifeless form and spitting in her face. German laborers escaping from Antwerp 
were found crucified by the wayside. In many places German soldier boys were found with 
their arms tied and their eyes cut out of their sockets. But why dwell on these horrors? 

"The Belgians have been equalling the Cossacks in inhuman cruelty. It will stagger hu- 
manity to know the truth. But tlie truth must be offset. So the Germans must be made to 
appear equally barbarous. To this end the testimony of milk maids and strumpets, hoboes, 
and irresponsible vagrants are quoted as authorities. Premier Asquith hasn't heard of any 
such outrages. American newspaper men deny charges over their signatures. Authoritative 
French sources say they are ignorant of them. Let the reader draw his own conclusion." — 
Fatherland. 

So, as to "Poor, dear, brave, little Belgium," etc., I am beginning to fear I 
made a bad sob-and-sympathy investment. They did some good fighting, and I 
hurrahed, because, while I knew their fool king was working their ruin, I didn't 
blame them for it. It wasn't their fault. But when the returns came in, things 
didn't look so well for the Belgian character. The Congo atrocities might have 
been overlooked; although they were substantiated by the photographic lens, — 
and you can't fool the lens. But we are beginning to get unequivocal statements 
from high authorities that the Belgian even outside of the war pale is not alto- 
gether the all-around hero he is cracked up to be. The latest iconoclast is Ex- 
Senator Beveridge, who in a recent issue of Colliers, says: 

"This camp of the interned Belgian soldiers near Zeist is the scene of the recent riot 
which caused the Dutch soldiers on guard to shoot into the mob, killing eight and wound- 
ing two. There are two accounts of this affair. 'The Netherlands Government not only feed 
and house these men, but pay them twenty cents a day (a little over eight cents American 
money.) Yet, although they were getting all of this from us, they said that the prices charged 
at the canteen are too high, and their manner of protesting was by physical force. Also, 
they will not work when work is offered them.' It was a Holland subject who was speaking, 
one not connected with the Government, and a good type of the educated middle class of the 
Netherlands 

"But: 'The money we spent in the canteen did not all come from the Dutch Govern- 
ment,' said a Belgian interned soldier. 'Most of the cash with which we bought chocolate,, 
beer, buns, and the like was sent us by friends and relatives from Belgium. And this can- 



100 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

teen, which is a private money-making- enterpirse, extorted outrageous prices. On standard 
.articles, the selling price of which is well known and uniform, we were charged an amount 
^'hich yielded the concessionaire 33 1-3 per cent, profit over his normal profit. We rebelled. 
Of course it was foolish, but some of us expressed our sentiments by throwing rocks 
through the windows of the canteen.' 

" 'AH this has been looked into,' said a Hollandei-, 'and, as a result, Dutch public opinion 
is decided and practically unanimous against the Belgians in this instance. Inquire about 
.and find out for yourself.' Inquiring about accordingly was done, and this Dutchman's em- 
phatic report of public opinion was confirmed. 

"A crowded cafe, where the common people gather to meet, converse, and listen to the 
occasional music, was filled with talk, laughter and smoke. One could not help overhearing 
strident conversations. 'These Belgians! AchI I cannot endure them!' said a young woman 
of the working class to her companion at a nearby table. 'Dirty — oh! so dirty and shiftless 
-and idle! They take all they can get and want more, and they are never thankful. They will 
not work. I hate them.' 

"Still, public opinion in the Netherlands, judged by different and, measured by the social 
;sca.le, antipodal sources, is against the Belgians, whether interned soldier or fleeing refugee, 
on their unwillingness to work, their ingratitude, and their bumptiousness. Dutch noble- 
man and peasant are for once agreed on this point; and nothing is rarer than an agreement 
on anything between the aristocracy and the common people of Holland. 'For,' say these 
Hollanders, 'we are supporting hundreds of thousands of the fellow countrymen and women 
of these opulent Belgians, and yet not one guilder will they take from their deep, fat purses 
to aid us in our work of relief of their own less fortunate compatriots.' Said an informefl 
.and quite indifferent American on this point: 'Look around you. Here in this dining room 
you may see some of these very Belgians of whose wealth and parsimony the Hollanders 
•complain. Everything the latter say is quite true.' 

"It must be said that those in the refugee camps do not inspire admiration. By far the 
.irreater number are stolid and unwholesome in appearance. Many are seemingly diseased.' 

Senator Beveridge will have to be turned off by Collier's. In fact, it begins 
to look as if nobody can be sent over there who will do just right, don't you know. 
As soon as they see the thing as it is over there, you betray their employers and 
tell the truth. Frederick Palmer alone holds out; but he mustn't be blamed too 
harshly for he got a smile from a Duke's cook while in London. But you say, 
these witnesses were all prejudiced. All right, then. Mr. Sheriff, call Sir Conan 
Doyle, official English Atrocity Expert. 

"The danger of European peace lies in this matter. Eet us look this danger squarely in 
the face. Whence does it come? Is it from Germany, with her traditions of kindly home 
life — is this the power which raised a hand to help the butchers of the Mongolia and of the 
Domaine de la Courenne? Is it likely that those who so justly admire the splendid private and 
public example of William II would draw the sword for Belgium? Both in the name of trade- 
rights and Humanity Germany has a long score to settle on the Congo. 

"The witnesses of the crime are of all nations, and there is no possibility of error con- 
cerning the facts. There is finally the incorruptible evidenc;e of the kodak. The terrible facts 
set out here, and which we know, are only the mere margin of that welter of violence and in- 
justice which the Jesuit Father Verreersch has summed up in the two words: 'Immeasurable 
JMisery.' 

"Often the white man acted himself as torturer and executioner. 

"They talk of philanthropy and civilization. Where it is, I do not see. In one instance 
-Captain Lethaire had put sixty women in irons and allowed neai'ly all of them to die of hun- 
.ger, because one village had not brought in enough rubber. One Lacroix writes a letter to 
the "Niew Gazet," of Antwerp, that he had murdered one hundred and fifty men, and cruci- 
fied women and children and had mutilated many men. 

"Sums aggregating 7,000,000 pounds of money have been traced to the King, and this 
money has been spent in buildings in Belgium, in buildings on the Riviera, in corruption of 
public men, and of the European and American press, the English not excepted, and finally 
in such a private life as has made the King's name notorious throughout Europe. 

In August, 1909, a year after Belgium had annexed the Congo Free-State, Prince Albert, 
the heir to the Belgian throne (now king), returning from the Congo, said: "What we must 
-do is to work for the moral regeneration of the natives," etc. On that occasion Sir Doyle has 
this to say: " 'Moral regeneration of the natives!' Moral regeneration of his own family and 
of his country — that is what the situation demands." "The honesty of German colon al policy 
is a proof of the fitness of Germany to be a great land-owning power." "Reform is an ab- 
solute necessity as long as Belgium holds tlie Congo." "Surely, there sliould be some punisli- 
Tnent for those who by their injustice and violence have dragged Christianity and civilization 
in the dirt. The wretched agents on the spot will be offered up as victims, whereas the real 
criminals will escape; but the curse of blood and the scorn of every honest man rests upon 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. 



101 



them already. They have been guilty of the greatest crime in all history, the greater for 
having been carried out under the odious pretense of philanthropy. Surely, somehow, some- 
where, they will have their reward." 



Mr. Lerand, in a debate in the Belgian House in July, 1903, made the follow- 
ing statement: 

"The work of civilization in the Congo Free-State is an enormou.s and continual butchery." 
He also stated in July, 1903: 

"Free labor does not exist. The population of the Congo Free-State Is organized into 
A'^ast droves of slaves." 

Again the report of the King's Commission, London, October 30, 1905, contains the fol- 
lowing statement: 

"The missionaries brought before the Commission a multitude of natives, witnesses who 
revealed a large number of crimes and excesses alleged to have been done by the sentinels. 
They killed without pity all those who attempted to resist their whims." 

"In the pamphlet, "Wrongs in the Congo State," there are contained photos of women 
and children with their hands cut off." 

No, Sir Conan, you are right. You can't fool the kodak or corrupt it either. 
Your kodak showed the Belgians in the Congo. The one below shows the Ger- 
mans in Belgium as they really are — distributing food to the Belgians. 




Sir Conan's "Germans with their trad tions of kindly home life. 



"Never since the French Revolution was precipitated by the slanderous and satirical lam- 
poons of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette has there been such a campaign of offensive abuse 
as the London press has indulged in against the German royal family; and as King George 
and Queen Mary are both members of the same family, with hardly a drop of blood in their 
veins which is anything but Gennan, the wave of scorn and hatred of German royalty whipped 
into fury by the newspaper writers and articles of the English capital is bound to surge up to 
the very steps of the British throne unless drastic action is taken by the British authorities 
themselves. — London dispatch to New York World. 



102 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



"R" IS FOR RUSSIA, ALL REEKING IN RED. 




PICK-UPS FROM POGROMDOM. 

PROCLAMATION BY THE CZAR! 
"My beloved subjects! Reminding you of 
the great and numerous benefits which you 
have received from me, I reckon on your 
willing and enthusiastic service in my 
armies." — Lustige "Blatter," August 15, 
(Berlin.) 

There he stands, fellow-citizens; over- 
ankles in blood; the blood of innocent vic- 
tims, as the English writers have told you 
for years. American professors of humanity, 
gaze on this vast pool of blood; — 
"Lave in it, drink of it, 
Then, if you can." 



OH, MY BELOVED JEWS! 




Hy Mayer in Puck- 
My Beloved Jews." 



"The Czar's Shield, 



From "Kikiriki" 
loved Jews." 



(Vienna) — "To My Be- 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. 103 

From Kipling's "Truce of the Bear." 

"Horrible, hairy, human, with paws like hands In prayer, 

Making his supplication, rose Adam-zad the Bear! 

I looked at the swaying shoulders, at the paunch's swag and swing, 

And my heart was touched with pity for the monstrous, pleading thinir* 

"Touched with pity and wonder, I did not fire then . . . 

I have looked no more on women — I have walked no more with men. 

Nearer he tottered and nearer, with his paws like hands that pray — 

From brow to jaw that steel-shod paw, it ripped my face away! 
Luck to the white man's rifle, that shoots so fast and true. 
But- — pay and I lift my bandage and show what the Bear can do." 
(Flesh like slag in the furnace, knobbed and withered and gray — 
Matun, the old blind beggar, he gives good worth for his pay.) 
"Rouse him at noon in the bushes, follow and press him hard — 
Not for his ragings and roarings flinch ye from Adam-zad, 
"But (pay, and I put back the bandage) this is the time to fear, 
When he stands up like a tired man, tottering near and near; 
When he stands up as pleading, in wavering, man-brute guise, 
When he veils the hate and cunning of the little, swinish eyes; 
"When he shows as seeking quarter, with paws like hands in prayer, 
That is the time of peril — the time of the Truce of the Bear." 



(GOOD-BYE, BR'ER ZANG'LL) FROM A TRUE SON OF ISRAEL TO ONE IN NAME ONLY 

"You begin by expressing surprise that some American Jews should sympathize with 
Prussia, though this war was 'made in Germany.' Let me tell you, Mr. Zangwill, that not 
some, but most of the American Jews, and I hope of the entire world, are sympathizing with 
Germany. All the American Jewish dailies (with perhaps one exception) are outspoken pro- 
German. And do you know why? Because we are too intelligent to believe the poisoned 
English press. We do not allow our minds to be made up for us by the anti-German editorial 
writers. We read the documents and we are convinced, as every honest and sound-minded 
person, familiar with the political developments that lead to the war, must be, that, in this 
terrible conflagration, Germany was forced to take up arms for self-defense against Russian 
barbarity, French lust for revenge and English greed for money. For what was it, if not the 
desire to cripple German prosperity, that drove the "nation of shopkeepers" into the em- 
brace of savage Russia a few years ago? And why does now England declare war against Ger- 
many? I consider you too intelligent to believe that England was willing to sacrifice millions 
of dollars and thousands of her subjects because she signed a treaty to preserve the neutral- 
ity of Belgium. You, as well as I, know that when she has nothing to gain, England is not 
so scrupulous about her signature. One example is sufficient to prove this assertion: In 
1878 England signed the Berlin Tractate which contains a distinct clause that Roumania must 
accord equal rights to her Jewish subjects. Up to the present day, Roumania has been 
treating her Jews as outlaws, thus violating a treaty which England signed. And what has 
England done to enforce respect for her signature? She surely has not declared war against 
Roumania. Why? Because there was nothing to be gained for British interests by punish- 
ing little Roumania, while there is a great deal to be won by weakening powerful Germany. . . 

"Your suspicion that the Jews hold off their sympathy from the allies on account of Rus- 
sia, is partly correct. Even if Russia would take no part in the war we would symf<athize 
with Germany, because we believe that the allies are wrong. But, now that Russia sides with 
the allies, of course, no sane person could expect the Jews of neutral states to wish the allies 
success, for this would mean greater glory for the Czar and more suffering for our Russian 
co-religionists. 

"Your amazing statement that it is better for the Russian Jews to 'continue to suffer 
than that the great interest of civilization should be submerged by the triumph of Prussian 
militarism' surpasses in its cruelty and injustice anything I have ever seen written by a Jew. 

"Mr. Zangwill, do you know what it means to suffer in Russia? You have read about 
pogroms. Have you ever lived through one? You have heard of your ally, the Cossack. But 
did you ever feel his lash? And if you say that your imaginative m.ind can clearly picture 
.to you all the horrors of Jewish life in Russia, even though you never experienced them in 
person, do you still maintain that you are willing to have your unfortunate 6,000,000 brethren 
tortured indefinitely, in order to save 'civilization,' meaning, of course, English civilization, 
which allows such atrocities — nay, which, by its alliance with the Czar, sanctions all his bar- 
barities perpetrated on our brethren? 



104 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

"You are trying to win our sympathy for England by telling us that Sir Edward Grey 
has assured you that when Germany will be defeated, Russia will be "encouraged" to treat 
the Jews like human beings. And you, Mr. Zangwill, state that this is nc t a promise of 'a 
politician in a crisis.' Is that really so? Where was Sir Edward Grey till now? Why did 
he not 'encourage' Russia to stop the scandalous Beilis trial? Why did he not encourage 
the Czar to allow you, Mr. Zangwill, to enter Russia? I suppose you did not forget the an- 
swer the same Sir Grey gave to the 'English Jewish Committee' when they asked him to 
bring some pressure on the Czar that he respect a British passport in the hands of a Jew? 

"And in conclusion, let me quote a passage from II Chronicles, xx: 37, in which Sir 
Churchill may be interested: 

" 'Then pi'ophesied Eliezer, the son of Dodavohu of Mareshah, against Jehoshaphar, say- 
ing, 'Because thou hast connected thyself with Achazyahu, the Lord hath broken down thy 
works, and the ships w^ere wrecked, so that they were not able to go to Tarshif;h.' " 

"September 14, 1914. Meyer I. Leff, M. U. 

WHERE THE JEWS STAND 

Says Judge Leon Sanders: 

"The man who personally directed that no American citizen of Israelitic faith should be 
allowed to enter the Dark Empire, banished civilization, treated with utter contempt the 
President of the United States and Congress when approached on the subject of preventing 
Jewish bloodshed, suddenly professes himself a friend of the oppressed and peisecutecl! Will 
anybody put any faith in such professions?" 

THE CZAR'S UKASE. 

"Apropos of the Czar's message to the Jews in Russia, the "Censor" in its last issue 
terms it 'about as sardonic a bit of jesting as has come out of Russia in a Ion?? time,' writes 
"The American Jew.' 'If the promise were meant to be kept,' says the editorial, 'it would 
still be a joke in its method of address, for as the world knows the Russian autocracy has 
always been in the habit of testifying its 'love' for the Jews by remorseless proscriptions, 
imprisoning them in ghettoes, and once and again promoting a 'pogrom' that slaughtered 
them without discrimination, for no other reason than that they were 'Jews.' Our es- 
teemed contemporary cannot, therefore, agree with us when we commend the Russian Jew's 
loyalty to his country. The Czar's ukase is sheer hypocrisy. He does not love the Jew. He 
does not mean to respect the Jew's rights. And the Jew knows it. Knows th;i': he is the 
cast-off, despised plaything of Russian brutality — the social underling of Russian autocrpcy." 

From the (Jewish) Morning Journal, Aug. 10, 1914: 

"In connection with the prejudiced attitude of the American press in favor of Russia, 
England and France, it occurs to us what has appeared to escape general observation: the 
avowed friendship of Russia. Russian despotism has expatriated hundreds of thousands en- 
slaved people. Russia's bloodthirsty Slavs have instituted horrible massacres, and amused 
themselves with cases like that of the Beilis trial. The people have suddenly become Angels 
in the eye of the American Press. The assassins of helpless women and infants, these pitiless 
oppressors of innocent, harmless people, the tools of racial hate and religious fanaticisiv, 
these champions of the most inhuman government in Europe, these last pilllars supporting a 
half oriental despotism of the middle ages, the empire of Nikolas II, suddenly receives a cer- 
tificate of honor from the American press, which tells us that a Russian victory is for the best 
Interests of civilization." 



THE CZAR AND THE JEWS. 
(By Joseph Bernard Rethy, in Fatherland.) 

The Jews have good memories and remember this: 

"That Russia !i. s denied the Jew everj justice, prevented h-m from enjoying his h;>i>- 
piness, taken away his property without process of law, thrown him into prison, sent him to 
die in Siberia, for-.c^J his d..ugluer on the stieets, separated him trom his fo-Iownicn and ruieJ 
over this peace-loving and industrious race with bloody hand and crimson knout and re- 
lentless fury. Never in the world have human beings been subjected to a tyranny so 
merciless as the Jews of Russia. It may be that a kind God shall forgive Bartholemew and 
the slaughter of the innocents. But never shall he forget Kishineff and Siberia. Dead men 
tell no tales, but the prisons of Siberia have walls with ears, and there are mysterious voices 
that have brought to us the whole and unbelievable truth. 

"In Germany where the Jew has been accorded every privilege and right given his Christ- 
ian brother he has time and again come to the assistance of persecuted Irlebrevvs across 
the border. Across that border the harassed Russian Jew could always look with hope, know- 
ing that once over the line he would be safe. 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. 105 

^'And always the enemies of the Jew could find a friend in the Czar, To them he turned 
an ever friendly ear. At every massacre, at every burning, at very pogrom, the Czar s red 
presence was felt. His officers, his ministers, his armies, his priests and the whole vast ma- 
chinery of government were always at the disposal of those who profited because the Jew 
was slain and scourged and hounded like a wild beast. A single word at any time from the 
Czar and the whole horrible business would have ceased. But he remained silent and when 
he did speak it was only to encourage murderers and thieves. 

"Disraeli, the great foreign minister, who feared Russia and provided against her in- 
trigues in India, must have turned in his grave two weeks ago when England linked arms 
with the arch enemy of mankind and began preparations to overrun the land of Heine, Men- 
delssohn and Richard Wagner. But it has been proved that in Christendom no nation is 
consistent, no people steadfast, no single thing secure and certain. But one thing is positive 
and that is that the Jews throughout the world are a unit in their opposition to Russia. Their 
hatred is sacred and they cannot be bribed by promises of future security, nor stilled by con- 
cessions. They have waited a long time. There are some things in life greater than country, 
finer than friend, better than wealth. The thousands of Jews who have been murdered and 
their brothers sent to Siberia have not been forgotten. At this minute they are remembered 
with startling clarity. The Jews everywhere are looking toward Russia and whatever strength 
and aid is theirs will be hurled against the bloody Czar." 

"MY BELOVED JEWS" 
"The Czar of Russia seems to realize that his Jewish subjects are, after all, — Men. Now, 
when the physical strength of the Russian Empire is put to the test, the barriers of religious 
prejudice and hatred fall, and in the gigantic chess game across the sea counts only the 
strength of arm, the clearness of vision, the bravery of heart. The Russian Jew is no coward. 
It takes strength, superhuman courage, to endure what has been meted out to our poor 
brethren in Russia. They who faced death a thousand times, death in its most barbarous 
form — who welcomed the reaper's touch when Russian fiends desecrated their homes and tor- 
tured their loved ones — ^know how to wage a loyal fight. It will take more than war to lib- 
erate the Russian Jew, more than mere words, spoken in the hour of need, to establish our 
faith in the Czar's promises," — The American Jew. 

George Kennan, of Siberian notoriety, was at the outset one of the rankest 
anti-Germans of them all. He thought that Russia would triumph and the Slavs 
and Jews would be given their "place in the Sun." Now, he doesn't seem quite 
so survigusly super-sanguine. He really seems a trifle disgruntled. He seems to 
have that "next morning" feeling, after a too, too, exhilarating pipe dream. Hear 
him in recent issues of the Outlook: 

"When Germany declared war against Russia, and the so-called 'alien' nationalities of 
the Empire united with the 'true Russians' in support of the Czar and his Government, it 
was confidently believed by everybody that the Jews in particular would receive some re- 
ward for their loyalty, or at least some recognition of their patriotic devotion to the state. 
It did not peem reasonable to suppose that when they contributed liberally to war funds, vol- 
unteered for military service, prayed for the Czar in their synagogues, and fought for him 
in the field, they would not be relieved from some of their disabilities, even if they were not 
granted all the rights of Russian citizenship. 

"Not only have they (the Jews) made enormous pecuniary contributions, but as soldiers they 
have shown miraculous courage on the field of battle, and many of them have received military 
decorations. Such behavior on their part, however, is not to be regarded as especially meri- 
torious. It is only the performance of a sacred duty to their country, and Russian Jews could 
not act otherwise.'- — From the Petrograd 'Reitch.' Hundreds of Young Jews in the univers- 
ities and higher technical schools who were not liable to conscription volunteered for active 
service and were sent to the front. 

"In another recent account. Lieutenant Gogulinski says: 'There were eight Jews in my 
company, and at the time when I was wounded only two of them were left alive.' 

Another account: " 'A bullet had smashed the Russian's collar-bone and another had gone 
through his leg. I ordered the bearers to take up one of them, and they began to lift the Rus- 
sian. He refused assistance and said: 'Take the Jew; he's hurt worse than I am.' The Jew 
face was gray and blood was running out of his mouth; but he whispered faintly: 'I've got 
only one wound; he has two. He's suffering the most — take him first.' How natural, how fine." 



Another: " 'Meyer Lovinski, born in the village of White Church, died a hero's death on the 
226th of August, near the forests of Laschova. Disregarding a heavy fire, he rode constantly in 
advance, reconnoitering coolly the enemy's dispositions. But a bullet hurled the gallant scout 
from his saddle and he died heroically. On the following day we recovered his body and 



106 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

turned it over to the Jews in Laschova, who buriea it with all honors in the Jewish grave- 
yard. May the kingdom of heaven receive my dear Lovinski — unforgetable comrade and fel- 
low-soldier!' 

"It soon became apparent, however, that these advocates of peace and good will had 
turned their coats too hastily. Thinking that the Czar must necessarily show some favor 
to the nationality that had given him such proofs of loyalty and patriotism, they quickly ad- 
justed themselves to the expected change in his Jewish policy. But in assuming that the 
Czar would "let up" on the Jews merely because they were ready to fight for him against 
the Germans, the turncoats were giving him credit for more liberality, generosity, and grat- 
itude than he proved to have. When Jews began to come to him with symbols of loyalty, 
as they did in Petrograd, Grodno, Lublin, and other Russian towns, he might very naturally 
have said to them: 

" 'The storm of war is causing more suffering to you than to Russians generally be- 
cause most of your people live near the German frontier. Poland and the western provinces 
of the Pale are now the scenes of conflict, and tens of thousands of Jews are being driven, 
in a destitute condition, from their homes. In view of this fact and of the patriotic loyalty 
that you have shown, I shall devote particular attenion to your needs, and shall change or 
modify as far as possible the laws and administrative regulations that bear most heavily 
upon your race.' 

"He might even have added, nearly in the words of William II, 'I no longer know parties 
or races; I know only Russians,' 

"Instead of doing this, however never in a single case did he meet the Jews with sym- 
pathy or hold out to them the promise of a brighter future. 

"Late in August, 1914, a Jewish surgeon living in Smolensk sent to Mr. Kasso, the Min- 
ister of Public Instruction, the following telegram: 

" 'My son has passed the entrance examination for the first class of the Smolensk Gov- 
ernment Gymnasium, and my daughter has passed a similar examination for the first class 
of the Mariisk Women's Gymnasium. I served through the Russo-Japanese campaign in 
Manchuria, and was decorated by Imperial order witli the Cross of St. Stanislaus and the 
Cross of St. Anne with Swords. For the last three years I have been serving without pay, 
as physician of the Third Smolensk High School. I beg that my children may be admitted 
to the gymnasia without the drawing of lots and without reference to the norm' (the Jewish 
quota.) 

"The surgeon received the following reply: 

" 'Your petition for admission to schools without the drawing of lots and without refer- 
ence to the norm is denied.' 

"From this correspondence it appears that a Jew may serve his country faithfully 
through a bloody and disastrous war; may receive two crosses of honor for gallantry on the 
field of battle; may act for three years without pay as physician of a Government high 
school; and may then be forced to go to another war, leaving his children at home without 
a chance even of secondary education. 

"In almost every other field of Russian social life the treatment of the Jews since the 
war began has been equally harsh, cruel, and barbarous. Late in November, 1914, the Min- 
ister of Justice, Mr. Scheglovitof, refused to confirm the election of twenty-four Jewish law- 
yers as members of the Petrograd Bar Association. They were duly qualified and the Asso- 
ciation wanted them; but the Minister vetoed their election on racial and religious grounds. 

"If Jews are worthy of acceptance as soldiers — and even a Jew-hating Czar does not 
disdain their help — their sisters would seem to be worthy of acceptance as hospital nurses; 
but governors of provinces and officials of the Red Cross do not allow them to serve, even 
when they have been chosen by the Union of Russian Zemstvos for its own war hospitals. 
But admittance to some of these hospitals is denied even to wounded Jewish soldiers brought 
back from the front. Drs. Kucherof and Pustnykof refused to take them into the hospital 
at Taganrog, and a protest against such action was made to the Medical Society of the Don." 

Prince Paul Dolgorukoff, in the Russkiya Vijedomosti (Moscow) : 

"The moment has come to put the question regarding the status of the Jewish race. The 
inconsistency between the obligations which the Jews owe to the Government and their depri- 
vation of rights in the country has always existed; but in this war it has become so keen that 
it is impossible to keep silent about it. Hundreds of thousands of Jews are shedding their 
blood for the grandeur of Russia, and in the meantime they are deprived of the rights of 
which no Russian subject can be deprived otherwise than by a court, as a punishment for 
a crime. This position of a six-million population makes itself felt in all manifestations of 
our life. 

"Still more violent does the clash between life and the rules appear when it immediately 
concerns the participants of the war. Many thousands of wounded Jews are now scattered 
all over Russia, including cities outside the Pale, Their relatives cannot be with them or 
even come to them for a short time. And if a Jew soldier dies, his relatives are deprived of 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. 



107 



the possibility of paying him their last tribute, or must violate the law and reside 'secretly/ 
without being registered." 

"THEM DAM GERMAN JEWS" 

For personal bravery in the face of the enemy, 720 Jewish soldiers in the Ger- 
man Army have been decorated with the Iron Cross. This was some time ago, too. 
Probably well upwards of 1,000 by now. 



GENTILE GENTLENESS 

But Russian atrocities are not confined to "My Beloved Jews." What name would first 
spring to every human lip when asked "who is the most atrocious of all humans?" The 
COSSACK. 




GENERAL PEST 
The most efficient foe of the Russian in- 
vasion. — Vienna "Floh," in 1911. 



Bushnell in Cincinnati "Times-Star." 
This left cartoon seems actually prophetic. 
The one on the right should be entitled: "In 
the Cossack's Wake." It is an appropriate 
companion picture for the Belgian cartoons. 



The New York "Sun" of November 14, 1914, contains under the heading "Russians to 
Leave No German in Rear," the following special cable despatch: 

"London, Nov. 14. — It is stated on reliable authority that the Russian commanders, taught 
by the harsh experience of the Allies with German spies, have come to the conclusion that in 
their advance into German territory, none of the German civilian population shall be allowed 
to remain in the conquered area. All must go forward with the advance of the Russian army. 

"The decision is a stern one and will entail great suffering, but from all the circum- 
stances, it seems inevitable. The German method of conducting espionage in warfare makes 
it impossible for an army to leave a German population in its rear with any safety." 

Americans! The intended action of the Russians is a crime. Will you not protest against 
the murder of women and children, carefully planned and apparently supported by the English 
Press as an inevitable measure? Read, and read the message again; nothing but murder Is 
contemplated, because it is utterly impossible for a population of millions to move in quiet 
and order. The old must, the young will, die. Disease and suffering will overtake the re- 
mainder. And yet the English Press has issued no warning, and the New York "Sun" does 
not protest, but opens its columns for the announcement that Russian commanders wlil see 
"that none of the German civilian population shall be allowed to remain in the conquered 
area" and that "all must go forward with the advance of the Russian army." The excuse 



108 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

for that action is the accusation that German civilians are spying in the rear of the advanc- 
ing Russians. 

How different the case would be if the German army, in a retaliatory manner, drove out 
every Belgian woman and child from its country. What a cry would be raised by every 
newspaper all over the United States. — Fatherland. 

4,000,000 aeroplane arrows have been ordered of American firms by Russia, 

We all knew that the Russians periodically massacred the Jews in Kischeneff and Gomel, 
and knouted Russian workmen in the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg? But how many 
knew they drove a hundred thousand Chinese men, women and children at Blagovestchensk 
into the river and drowned them .the stream being choked with the bodies of non-combat- 
ants for months? 

WHEN KROPOTKIN TOLD THE TRUTH 

"Only a short time ago England was holding up her hands in horror at her cruelties and 
perfidy. Prince Kropotkin gave me not long since a book of his describing present conditions 
in Russia and said to me: 

"The facts I have related here are absolutely true, and are so horrible that while writing 
them, I have scarcely been able to sleep.' " — John L. Stoddard. 



ONLY THREE LEGS AND ARMS BEHIND THE BELGIANS 

The New York Evening Post reprints from the Berliner Tageblatt, Mr. Paul 
Lindenberg's story of eleven mutilated women found at Soldau. He tells of the 
devastation of Gerdauen and Nordenburg, and quotes from an official dispatch: 

"Two days after the battle of Dorothove, I saw on the Guttstadt-Seeburg road a troop 
of recruits, about twenty-one men, who the day before had been attacked by Cossacks. Ev- 
ery one of the recruits had had either a leg or a hand cut off, and they had been left so 
to lie on the road. A gendarme had accompanied the recruits, and he lay upon the road 
chained in a kneeling position, his hands bound behind his back. His nose and ears had been 
cut off. Most of these men were still living." 



ONLY FORTY-ONE 

In reply to the charge of cruelty by the Russians in and about Lemberg (a 
charge which may, for aught I know, really never have been made) a recent 
number of Collier's in triumphant exculpation elucidates that whereas it was 
alleged that hundreds of civilians had been slain by the Russians; yet, as a matter 
of fact the evidence disclosed at the outside not more than 41 — I believe it was — 
all of them for alleged sniping. Only 41! ! 

Like the servant girl who, while supposedly a virgin, unfortunately gave 
birth to a child. A slanderous gossiper salaciously retailed the circumstances 
through the village and made the gratuitous falsification that the baby weighed 
14 pounds. Imagine the virtuous indignation of the mother and her relatives 
who knew it only weighed eleven pounds! They started to bring suit for slander, 
but more moderate counsels prevailed. 



B— IS FOR BRITAIN— BLUFF, BUNG', BRUTE AND BLOOD 

This is from one, Thomas Jefferson, who, until this war started, was not only 
well hut ewon favorably known in this alleged Republic: 

"The embarrassments at Washington, in August last, I expected would be great in any 
state of things; but they proved greater than expected. In Europe the transient possession 
of our capital can be no disgrace. Nearly every capital there was in possession of its enemy; 
some often and long. But diabolical as they paint that enemy, he burnt neither public edi- 
fices nor private dwellings. It was reserved for England to show that Bonaparte, In atrocity, 
was an Infant to their ministers and their generals." — (Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 
January 1, 1815. 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. 109 

WHERE IS THE FLAG OF ENGLAND? 

{Labouchere, the distinguished Englishman in London "Truth") 

Let the winds of the world make an- It has floated o'er scenes of pillage 

swer! And flaunted o'er deeds of shame; 

North, south, east and west — • It has waved o'er the fell marauder 

Where'er there is wealth to covet, As he ravished with sword and 

Or land to be possessed; flame; 

Where'er are savage nations It has looked on ruthless slaughtei 

To coddle, coerce or scare, And assassination, dire and grim, 

You may look for the vaunted cm- And has heard the shrieks of its vie- 

blem — tims 

The flag of England is there. Drown every jingo hymn. 

Where is the flag of England? 

Go sail where rich galleons come 
With their shoddy and loaded cotton, 

And beer, and Bibles and rum. 
Seek the land where brute force hath 
triumphed 

And hypocrisy hath its lair. 
And your question will thus be an- 
swered — 

For the flag of England is there. 

So, let us follow that flag, even though we have all the way to ride red oceans 
on waves of blood. No space to elaborate on her ancient record: her shooting 
Sikhs from cannon's mouths; her killing in cold blood her own King, her own 
Queen, Anne Boleyn, Scotland's Queen, France's sainted Joan of Arc; Ireland's 
uncrowned King, Robert Emmet; — even in the last two centuries, she had upon 
her bloody statute books more than 150 offenses punishable by death — it was 
death for a hungry creature to take a rabbit from "My Lord's" sacred preserve* 
No wonder the poet's soul sickened and sank as he sang: 

"Such is the fruit of the gallows tree 
That grows in the orchard of the King." 

The whole record reeks with red. The whole landscape is blotched with 
blood. The whole horizon is one vast stretch of sardonically grinning skulls,, 
rising tier on tier sheer around and over the earth. We will not elaborate on 
her ancient atrocities on others, but when we come to her slaughtering her own 
offspring, aye, hiring the Indian with his torch and tomahawk to massacre our 
own grandfathers and grandmothers, we must pause a moment. 

This is from Lester's History of the United States: 

"It is with regret that we are obliged in this war (1812) as we did in that of the Revc- 
lution, to recount so many instances of violations of faith and such frequent resorts to atroc- 
ities and massacres. The English employed and paid the Indian savages for perpetrating" 
the shocking barbarities. During an engagement of a detachment of the American army^ 
under Gen. Winchester, with the main body of the British army, vinder Col. Proctor, the 
American commander was taken; but his soldiers were doing their duty on the field and had 
a fair chance of v/inning the battle. Partly terrified by a threat of Col. Parker, of letting loose 
the savages for another general massacre of our helpless frontier population, and influenced 
partly by the promise that Proctor had made, that if the Americans would surrender the fron- 
tier population should be protected, they laid down their arms as soon as they received this 
assurance with the order of their captive commander to surrender. The dastard liar, who 
professed to represent the chivalry and honor of England, turned them out for butchery un- 
armed. The war whoop rang on the night air, and 500 Americans were brained by the toma- 
hawk. Most of them were young men from the best families of Kentucky. That foul treach- 
ery has never been forgotten or forgiven, and it never will be by western men." 

Pertinently asks an honest Englishman, Mr. C. H. Norman, in the London 
New Age: 



110 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

"Who fought the battle of. Peterloo? Who destroyed the peasant leaders who strove 
against the tyranny of British militarism in the time of Pitt? Who crushed the Chartist 
movement? Who massacred the followers of Monmouth? Who ruined and corrupted Ire- 
land? Who massacred the Egyptian Nationalist Party at the bombardment of Alexandria? 
Who shot down railwaymen at I^lanelly? Who seized the territories at Oudh? Who mur- 
dered peaceful citizens at Liverpool and in Dublin?" 

Right pithily Mr. Wilfrid Blunt, himself an Englishman, says of the species 
Englishman : 

"He alone has, in our day, exterminated, root and branch, whole tribes of mankind. He 
alone has depopulated continents, species after species, of their wonderful animal life, and 
is still yearly destroying; and this not merely to occupy land, for it lies in large part empty, 
but for his insatiable lust of violent adventure, to make record bags and kill. 

"The hypocrisy and all-acquiring greed of modern England is an atrocious spectacle." 

But, you cry impatiently, "Nearly all of that is stale and ancient." Yes, but 
it still stinks to the stars. British casuistry can't perfume it away. Still it is 
only a starter. Let us fly on a lotus breeze to China and see a whole country 
drugged with opium foisted, aye, forced over bloody protest, by England upon 
that unhappy land. But, Sir Casuist, you insist: "Opium isn't atrocious, it only 
dries them up and kills them by degrees, don't you know; — and we can count 
on each of them consuming quite a bit of our valuable Indian product before it 
gets him." I haven't time to parry the pitlle. Suffice to say : Things thai are 
equal to the same thing are equal to each other; a principle that no Englishman 
ever grasped except a few of their Scientists of the higher Order. 

HO, FOR BOER LAND! 
Sample proclamation in 1900: 

"V.R.— PUBLIC NOTICE. 
''It is hereby notified for information that unless the men at present on com- 
mando belonging to families in the town and district of Krugerdorp surrender 
themselves and hand in their arms to the Imperial authorities by July 20, the 
whole of their property will be confiscated and their families turned out desti- 
tute and homeless. — By Order. G. M. M. Ritchie, Capt., K. Horse." 

Louis Botha, England's greatest present pet and toast, to Lord Roberts, Sept. 
10, 1900: 

"Wherever your troops appear they ruthlessly and without cause burn houses or blow them 
up with dynamite, leaving the women and children helpless and homeless." 

Extract from a letter of President Steyn, of the Orange Free State, to 
Kitchener, in August, 1901 : 

"As regards the 74,000 women and children which your Excellency asserts are maintained 
In the camps, it seems to me that your Excellency does not know in what cruel manner these 
poor defenseless people are dragged from their homes by your Excellency's troops whilst all 
their possessions are destroyed by the troops. Your Excellency's troops have not hesitated to 
turn their artillery on these defenseless women and children to capture them when they were 
fleeing with their wagons or alone, whilist your troops knew that they were only women and 
children, as happened only recently at Gras-pan on the 6th of June near Reitz, where a 
woman and children laager was captured and retaken by us whilst your Excellency's troops 
took refuge behind the women; and when reinforcements came they fired with arti'lery anid 
small arms on that womanlaager. I can mention hundreds of cases of this kind," etc. 

London "Daily News" of November 9 said: "The truth is that the death rate in the camps 
is comparatively worse than anything Africa or Asia can show. There is nothing to match 
it even in the mortality figures of the Indian famines where cholera and other epidemics have 
to be contended with." "Reynolds Newspaper" (London) of October 20 spoke of the women 
and children "perishing like flies from confinement, fever, bad food, pestilential stinks and 
lack of nursing in these awful dath traps," with a death rate of 383 out of every 1,000. And 
the Sydney "Bulletin" said: "The authority granted by Lord Roberts to Red Cross nurses 
to attend our camps had been withdrawn on the ground that all necessary measures have 
already been taken." 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. Ill 

These measures met with no more ardent supporter than Winston Churchill, 
the present Lord of the Admiralty, who wrote to the London Post: 

"There is one way to overcome the resistance of the Boers, and that is by a prolonged 
process of attrition. In other words, we must kill them out so as to teach their children to 
love us." 

Hear W. T. Stead, the fearless free-lance, who went down in glory on the 
Titanic, while Bruce Ismay, the gallant English Captain, made his get-away: 

"The English only did 25,000 men and women to death by disease and prlval;ion in concen- 
tration camps and called It humanity." 

Now, in a Sirocco for Soudan. 
Hear Mr. Winston Churchill on Lord Kitchener's methods in "The River War:" 

"The Mahdi's tomb had been for more than ten years the most sacred and holy thing- that 
the people of the Soudan knew. Their miserable lives had perhaps been brightened, perhaps 
in some way ennobled by the contemplation of something which they did not quite under- 
stand, but they believed exerted a protecting influence. By Sir H. Kitchener's orders the 
tomb has been profaned and razed to the ground. The corpse of the Mahdi was dug up. TheJ 
head was separated from the body; the limbs and trunk were flung into the Nile. Such was 
the chivalry of the conquerors." That incident remains to be paralleled by the "Huns." 

Across the hot sands to EGYPT in 1906, in time of peace. Hear Mr. Norman 
again : 

"It is an account of some executions of some men whose sole crime was that they were 
defending their sacred pigeons from the guns of some British officers: 'On a cross solidly 
constructed at fifteen paces from the gibbet they are preparing the punishment of flagella- 
tion. The first sufferer strips to the waist, passes his head in the iron collar, and on his bare 
torso, the kurbash descends rhythmically to the sound of the voice that counts the blows; 
the bronze skin tumefies, splits in places, the blood spurts out; it is sickening, horrible. A 
second man who succeeds him, cries out still more desperately; the third one is literally 
contorted under the lash; he loses consciousness. Meanwhile the man hanged has given up 
the ghost. The second condemned follows with the same assured step of his predecessoit. 
The executions continue. The Hoggings go remorselessly on; the new ropes redden as they 
lash into the flesh. Yuset Huseyn's legs, in the hanging, are broken. Mohammed Gorbashi 
is undressed, crucified, and flogged fifty lashes. He gets maddened on receiving the twelfth. 
His voice is not well heard, for a soldier is ordered to press his had down in the opening of 
the cross again. While Mohammed Dervish Yohran is hanged, the executioner puts the rope 
round his neck and administers it wrongly. The condemned man is not strangled well, so he 
cries out on the cruelty of the world." The British Government ordered that the relatives of 
those punished in this way should be compelled to witness the spectacle, and they were 
brought up under armed escort. Sir E. Grey approved these proceedings. 

Again go with Mr. Norman to Zululand, where he quotes from a letter from 
a British officer, printed in the London Daily News of Aug. 16th, 1906: 

"About nine o'clock a. m., Mudhlogozulu, the paramount chief, approached, carrying a 
white flag. Some two or three hundred accompanied him. He arrived a few yards in front 
of a sergeant, and explained that he wanted to give in. The reply, of course, was a bullet 
that must have sent his brains some fifty yards off. His followers, who were now too far 
terrorized to use their weapons, stood back in a mass and shrieked for mercy. Mercy came 
quicker than expected — in the shape of a Maxim. What a sight! The whole bundle dropped 
lifeless in less than a minute. Several women were among the slain, as well as a lot of young 
boys. . . . The general way of dispatching the prisoners is to take them out of camp and 
tell them to run away into the bush. They only get about twenty yards or so when a bullet 
reaches them, and, of course, it is 'Good-bye, John,' for them. A faithful Kaffir was looking 
about the fallen, when he found Bambaata, and at once took steps to have his head brought 
into camp for identification. Well, the first thing the doctor ordered was to have the mat- 
ter kept secret, and also to have it stuffed at once. . . . We carried the head with us for 
about a week, when it was dissected, and the skull will probably be made into a nice to- 
bacco jar for someone. Curiously enough, I was never in better health, and altogether the 
food is splendid. In fact, I think it is the finest picnic I have ever been at." 

But let us ride on a spice-laden gale to Persia, surely there we can find sur- 
cease from English atrocities. Alas, no; they are universal. 

Hear Prof. Edward G. Browne, of Cambridge University, England — (not 
Doc-Eliot-shire) describing English conduct in Persia: 



112 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



"Seldom, if ever, in the history of this country has a foreign policy been pursued at once 
so illiberal, so immoral, so contemptible, and so perilous as that pursued by the present 
Government." 

Hear this: 

"The McGahan developed in the person of G. T. Turner who sent to the Manchester 
■"Guardian" an article, charging the Russian troops -with the indiscriminate shooting of men, 
Tvomen and children in Tabriz, as well as with unspeakable atrocities by their Persian Gov- 
ernor, including beating men to death, sewing up the mouths of Constitutionalists, nailing 
horseshoes to men's feet, and driving them through the bazaars, and with a general hanging 
vendetta against all who were even supposed to favor the new Persian Constitution. 

"Prof. Browne also wrote to the Manchester "Guardian," stating that he had obtained 
photographs w^hich left no doubt of the horrible character of the atrocities perpetrated in 
Tabriz. Two of these photographs are so dreadful that publication is impossible. 

"A correspondent of the "Nation" wrote, demanding their publication, "so that English- 
men might understand the price, paid in blood and national honor, for the Anglo-Russian aM 
Jiance." — (Cable New York "Times," Sept. 14, 1912.) 

And this: From John Galsworthy's "England and Persia." 



Home of the free! Protector of the 
weak! 
Shall We and this Great Gray Ally 
make sand 
Of all a nation's building green, and 
wreak 
Our Winter Will on that unhappy 
land? 
Is all our steel of soul dissolved and 
flown? 
Have fumes of fear encased our 
heart of flame? 
Are we with panic so deep-rotted 
down 
In Self that we can feel no longer 
shame? 
To league and steal a nation's hope of 
youth? 
Oh, Sirs! Is our Star merely cyn- 
ical? J i^ 



Is God reduced? That we must dark- 
en truth 
And break our honor with this 
creeping fall? 
Is freedom but a word — a flaring 
boast? 
Is Self concern horizon's utter sum? 
If so — today let England die, and 
ghost 
Through all her history to cornel 
If, Sirs, the faith of men be force 
alone, 
Let us ring down — the farce is noth- 
ing worth! 
If life be only prayers of things of 
stone, 
Come, death, and let us, friends, go 
mocking forth! 



BUT COMING DOWN TO RIGHT NOW. 



We already knew of Lord Fisher, present Sea Lord of England, who at the 
Hague Convention in 1899, as a British Delegate, vouchsafed: 

"War should be made as hellish as possible. When you have to wring a chicken's neck, 
3^ou don't give the chicken intervals for rest and refreshment." 

When the treatment of captured submarine crew^s was being discussed. Lord Fisher, this 
'pure' Britisher, shocked the assembly by barking: "Submarines? If I catch any in time of 
war, I will string their crews up to my yard-arm." 

"This," says a writer in "Fatherland," "is the 'navalism,' which places captured Ger- 
man sailors into the bow of the 'Amphion,' while she was searching for mines, so that they 
might surely be killed, should anything happen. What a contrast to German navalism, which 
thinks of the safety of the prisoners first, before putting up a last fight, as, for instance, the 
auxiliary cruiser 'Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse,' did in African waters. She first transferred 
her captured enemies, then she went, fighting, to her certain doom." 

But what of her landlubbers? It is a regret to have to chronicle that this 
war has brought some distressing disillusionments. Among other things it has 
proven, first, that titled Englishmen will easily get excited, and, second, when 
excited they will (by indirection at least) out-lie Ananias and will commit cer- 
tain other Intellectual and Spiritual enormities. Perhaps Edward VII was cor- 
rectly quoted as having taken the position that the thing to do when caught in 
a certain compromising position where no gentleman should be is to "Lie like a 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. 113 

gentleman;" and it may be that Salisbury applied this when, at the Berlin Con- 
ference he solemnly affirmed that the Cyprus Treaty didn't exist, only to be con- 
founded in a few days by its publication. 

No doubt Sir Gonan emulates Edward when he lies about German atrocities 
in Belgium, without giving a single specification supported by reputable testi- 
mony. No doubt Grey has been applying the Edward Doctrine. Even infinitesi- 
mal Asquith must have had it steadfastly in mind. Hear Prof. Hall: 

"It is a new and lamentable phenomenon that the English press proves itself as a liar 
and of despicable character. Over and over again even Mr. Asquith assured that England 
was without restrictions and that it did not have any secret alliances, but at the same time 
one knew in Berlin that he was lying." 

Even so, all of their array of pretentious writers must be guided when they 
charge that Germany wantonly and voluntarily violated Belgian Neutrality; when, 
as a matter of fact, (see 123 — Both English and French Books) Germany offered 
to keep out of Belgium if England would only keep out of the war; and to prevent 
England hemming and hawing about being unwilling to promise that because 
France should not be partitioned and reduced, Germany further offered not only 
not to bombard France's coast, but not to exact a foot of France's soil, or even a 
foot of her colonies— AND ENGLAND REFUSED. 

Now, these worthies know this. They may pretend not to, but they do. So 
what shall we say of them when they keep harping on their hnving to go to war 
because Germany violated Belgium's Neutrality? 

Then, too, we have the disclosure of an innate streak of cruelty in the char- 
acter of these homiletic worthies who are forever preaching ethics to us, the great 
unenlightened; as evidenced by the frenzied outbursts for bloody vengeance by 
Sir Conan, Jerome, Geo. M. Barnes, Sir Alfred Turner, Sir Oliver Lodge, and Mr. 
Frederic Harrison — to say nothing of the small fry. 

It is but to be expected, therefore, that atrocity is now spelled E-n-g-1-a-n-d. 



Hark to this item: From a letter in the New York Sun of November 11, 1914, 
from J. D. Williams, dated Calcutta, September 30, in part as follows: 

"There has been plenty of excitement since my arrival here. The soldiers shot about 
300 natives last night. They were part of a crowd who had returned from Canada on account 
of not being admitted there. They were marching on Calcutta to try and start trouble. I 
went out to the scene of the trouble in a motor car with a newspaper man. There was not a 
line in the paper about it this morning. The English know how to govern these natives al|i 
right." 

Again, when she declared war on Germany, how's this from the London Daily 
Graphic of August 20: 

"Down with the Germans, down with them all! 
O Army and Navy, be sure of their fall! 
Spare not one of them; those deceitful spies! 
Cut out their tongues, pull out their eyes! 
Down, down with them all!" 

And this: 

"At the outbreak of the war one of the first acts of the English Government was to drive 
all German, Austrian and Hungarian male residents from their homes and impound them in 
concentration camps. A mob was unleashed and set upon helpless men, women and children 
in the streets of London. This mob destroyed their shops, their homes, and killed and 
maimed many of them in a riot described by the London "MaiU'as outdoing Russian po- 
groms." — "Fatherland." 

Of their Aldershot concentration camps Mr. Herbert Corey says, in a letter 
to the New York Globe, under date of September 23: 

"There are 6,000 dejected men freezing in open camps at Aldershot without sufficient 
clothes, cooking in holes in the ground, barred even from reading a newspaper, suffering men- 
tally and knowing nothing of their folks at home. 'No one can doubt their utter misery,' 
writes Mr. Corey. 



114 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



"A little blond, blue-eyed German boy came to the headquarters tent and spoke to the in- 
terpreter: 

" 'This boy wants to see his father.* 

" 'He can't see his father,' snapped the officer on duty. 

"Tears came into the blue eyes. The boy began the long- trudge back to town. 

"Their sufferings on cold nights may be left to the imagination. Most nights are cold 
at Aldershot. 

"The road from London runs parallel to and at the distance of 100 yards from the camp 
fence. Each day that road is jammed with luxurious motor cars. Pretty women nestling in 
furs shiver as they watch the wretched 'raree-show.' The men stand with glasses at eye." 

We may know these incidents were bad enough when they constrained even 
the cruel-hearted Jerome to cry out: "This press-organized mobbing of harm- 
less creatures, whose only offense was that they accepted literally the declarations 
of fair play and common decency which has been England's boast for a century, 
and preferred to become Englishmen has done us an irreparable injury. While 
our brave lads in khaki are shedding their blood for England's honor, certain 
English journalists are doing their dirty best behind their backs to besmirch 
England's reputation with filth." 



AND FINALLY THE STOUTLY-DENIED DUM-DUMS 

Col. Gordon of the Gordon Highlanders (good old Scotch names, eh?) and 
Lieut.-Col. Neish of the same regiment, prisoners of war in the fortress of Torgau, 
wrote with their own hands and signed with their own names, documents stat- 
ing that dum-dum bullets had been served out to them at Plymouth before em- 
barking for France. The German Government has had these documents photo- 
graphed for the enlightenment of an incredulous world. 

The fac-similes of their written statement appeared in the Vital Issue. But 
these pictures from Fatherland give the proof. You can't fool the kodak, eh, sir 
Conan: 




Says the Gaelic-American: 

"The bullets and the bandolier, the photographs of which were reproduced in "The Gaelic 
American," were taken with hundreds of others, from the Duke of Wellington's Regiment 
as it marched through the streets of Dublin to embark on the steamship 'Lancfranc' for the 
seat of war, and every company of that regiment was supplied with them, as was every other 
British regiment which went to the front. 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. 115 

"The dum-dum bullets and bandoliers which were photographed were taken, some from 
a British regiment about to embark from Dublin for the seat of war, and others were brought 
back from the front by British soldiers. They were only specimens taken from several thous- 
and. The regiments from which they were taken and the factory in which they were made 
were named and the proofs supplied were clear and positive. Even the reply of the British 
captain to the soldier who objected to using a dum-dum which he found in his bandolier dur- 
ing a battle was given. He told the soldier that the regulation bullet would not kill the 
"damned squareheads" and to 'plug them with the old piil.' Every soldier in the British army 
knows that dum-dum bullets are served out, and there are many more where the photo- 
graphed specimens came from. And there are hundreds of men in Ireland who could give 
evidence that would prove the charge up to the hilt if martial law did not make death the 
penalty for telling the truth. 

"Some of the soldiers recognized them and objected to use them, but were ordered by their 
officers to do so. 

"American correspondents returning from the seat of wai- have brought back dum-dum 
bullets fired from English rifles which they picked up on the battlefields, and have exhibited 
them in the offices of New York newspapers which continue to deny the charge that the Eng- 
lish use them. These papers want no such evidence, or any other evidence that will hurt 
England. They are doing England's work for obvious reasons in deceiving the American 
people, with a view to getting American help for England when England needs it. 

"As for the English, they are the same shameless liars today as when scores of them 
made affidavits that they had seen Irishmen with tails and when they described the killing in 
a fair fight of a couple of thousand armed Englishmen in 1641 as a "massacre" in cold blood 
of over 40,000 unarmed men, women and children. The lie is England's chief weapon against 
her enemies and few Englishmen ever hesitate to lie in the service of their country." 

' A CERTAIN "FEMALE OF THE SPECIES;" * 

(for of such is the Kingdom of Kipling.) 

RICHARD READING'S SISTER 

By Gerhart Hauptmann 

Freely rendered into English by George Sylvester Viereck. 

'7 would like to be a nurse. I am sure I could kill one or two Germans." 

(From an authentic photographed letter of an Englishwoman to her brother, 
posted at Birmingham, England, September 28, 1914.) 

Lo, Jesus, this man's sister: She Have mercy on Thy Judgment Day 

Is lesser than the beasts that prey. Upon this soul's iniquity, 

Hyena-like, with stealth to slay, Lord, for the least, 

She'd prowl about a wounded man. The vilest beast 

Under the hood of Charity. Bears no such load of infamy. 

Garbed as a good Samaritan. Her name among the damned is Jane. 

A tearing she-fox, she would creep Make her an angel without stain. 
On helpless Germans in their sleep. 



And, finally, what lurid line is that that springs athwart the firmament: 

I-R-E-L-A-N-D ! 
The land of the Long Good Night — but whose day of Freedom will come 
with Germany's success. 

Of the treatment of Ireland, Sydney Smith says in 1820: 

"Such jobbing, such profligacy — so much direct tyranny and oppression — such an abuse 
of God's gifts — such a profanation of God's name for the purpose of party spirit and bigotry, 
cannot be exceeded in the history of Europe, and will long remain a monument of shame 
and infamy to England." 

"Fe-vr Irishmen dare speak out from their hearts because of the fear of being imprisoned 
or hung on the charge of treason, as many of their ancestors died as rebels against the Brit- 
ish Crown. But there are heroes in the Emerald Isle who dare to speak out and warn their 
countrymen against race suicide by recruiting and who refuse to believe the lies about Ger- 
many. They feel sorry for poor, stricken Belgium, but for every claimed atrocity in Bel- 



116 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

grium they can offer a thousand proven parallela They have but to glance across their 
country and see the ruins of a thousand shrines, wrecked cathedrals, priests hunted down 
like wolves. Redmond's appeal for troops in Wexford, Limerick and Drogheda, for Eng-- 
land, might well have awakened the tombs of those towns where lay the bones of many 
women and children massacred by the English conquerors. For the broken treaty of any 
country we offer the Treaty of Limerick and the memory of Patrick Larsfield. In spite of 
all suppression the real voice of the patriots of Ireland has found expression in the "Dublin 
Leader," "Irish National Volunteer," "Roscommon Herald," "The Kerryman," "Wicklow 
People," "Meath Chronicle," Galway Pilot," "Mayo News," "Leitrem Observer," "Sligo 
Champion," and "Leinster Leader." — Jas. K. McGuire in "Fatherland." 

GOOD NIGHT I 

Flame of a sullen sunset. Where all the woe and the glory 

Scream of a rising wind, Of all her long story are blent 

Thunder of waves apast us Like the ivy leaves on the abbeys 

And Ireland behind. By Cromwell rent; 

Beneath us the vessel trembles With every hill for an altar 

Like a hunter, keen for the race. Of sacrifice, sorely priced, 

But we of her blood are weeping We leave her there in the shadows 

Our country's face. With Padhrig and Christ. 

Out there in the dark we leave her But sure as that sullen sunset 

Foam fleck'd from the ocean's breast. Reddens along the deep. 

With the dead of our loving lying Will the great God's lightnings of vengeance 

At peace on her breast; For Ireland leap; 

"With the dreams of unnumbered ages And the hands that wrought her disaster. 

Star white on her forehead set. And the friends who betrayed her trust 

We leave her there where the heavens Will lie 'neath the heel of her Master 

Remember her yet. In ashes and dust. 

The sunset deepens and darkens. 

The billows, like hounds unslipped. 
Leap in from the wild Atlantic 

All frothy-lipp'd; 
The stars swing clear in the heavens, 

The distance dies on our sight, 
And so, with a backward yearning, 
(God send old Erin her morning) 

We bid her Good ight! 

— Teresa Brayton, 
in the "Irish World." 

Says the scholarly Jas. K. McGuire in Fatherland: 

"The news is poisoned because most all of it is dated from hostile sources — London, 
Paris and St. Petersburg. The cables to Germany were cut early in the war, by England, 
true to her historic record of deceiving the world. A kindly people, of high ideals, who have 
kept the peace of the world for forty years, when all other nations went to war, including 
our country, are set down in the news bureaus as vile barbarians, cruel vandals, and de- 
stroyers of all things sacred in religion and art. 

"In the Hotel Gresham, Dublin, I chanced to see some notes of "German atrocities," a 
description of the 'shooting of Sisters of Mercy by the German troops, the wilful killing of 
priests and sacrilege of sacred altars.' This was printed in various Irish papers by a scoun- 
drel who made it up in the Dublin Hotel 

"Ireland contains 33,000 square miles, England 58,000. Ireland is more fertile than either 
England or Scotland. The population of England is close to 35,000,000. Ireland is stripped 
down to 4,000,000 of inhabitants and ought to be able to support in comfort 15,000,000 of 
people. The island contains coal, iron, marble, copper and various resources not possible 
of development because of English control and opposition. Her industries are confined t» 
a small section of the Northeast, held in hand by the descendents of the invaders, fortified 
originally by conquest and rarely do you find a pure native holding any important business 
station in any of the 32 counties of the island. The prevailing fashion is to class the natives 
as lazy and incompetent without scrutinizing the historic and economic reasons which have 
brought them to their present plight and left them at the mercy of the conquerors. Few of 
her critics take into account the repressive commercial codes of centuries, lifted too late, 
in part, to restore industry. The English Parliament enacted laws which ruined the once 
prosperous industries of the country. As soon as Ireland developed an important direct 
export trade, England crushed the life out of it by export tariffs, hostile duties aimed at Irish 



.?• 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. mi 

exports solely. At one time Irish woolens were the first in Europe. The output of her 
looms found their way to all the cities of the continent. The cloth makers of England suc- 
cessfully petitioned the Parliament to place an arbitrary, preferential export duty on Irish 
woolens which annihilated the industry. That trade never recovered from the blow. Eng- 
land gave bounties to manufacturers in various lines, subsidies to ships and none to Ire- 
land. After bankrupting Ireland, she removed these restrictions in the midst of her conti- 
nental war exactly as she promises Home Rule now as an emergency measure to super- 
induce recruiting for the British army. The great wars on the continent frightened Eng- 
land into granting an Irish Parliament in 1782 which was taken away from Ireland twenty 
years later. Pensioners of the government and traitors destroyed the national cause ex- 
actly as they are trying to do today. That brief period of a free country was the one bright 
epoch of modern Irish history. The factories were occupied and increasing, the harbors nUed 
with ships, and immigration exceeded emigration. Irish independence and growing com- 
merce aroused fearful jealousies on the part of her more powerful neighbor who proceeded 
to crush Ireland again by acts of repression. This led to rebellion and bloodshed and the 
execution of Robert Emmet, followed by the destruction of Irish industries. Then came 
seventy years of horror, broken only by the gurgling cries of a strangling people. Young 
Ireland rose in 1848, led by a dozen educated young men, but the effort was futile. Famine 
had starved to death a million people the year before, another million fled to foreign shores, 
the life blood of the nation was exhausted and her children scattered to the four corners of 
the earth but preserving good memories." 

From the official answer of the Irish Volunteers to John Redmond: 

"If the Irish Volunteers are to defend Ireland they must defend it for Ireland under Ire- 
land's flag and under Irish officers. Otherwise they will only help to perpetuate the en- 
slavement of their country. 

"In this hour the counsels of cowardice and stupidity are being proffered as the cur- 
rency of patriotism, and a base attempt is made by our slavish press to invoke in Ireland 
not a pro-Irish, but an anti-German sentiment. Germany is nothing to us in herself, but 
she is not our enemy. Our blood and miseries are not upon her head. 

"But who can forbear admiration at the spectacle of the Germanic people, whom England 
has ringed round with enemies, standing alone undaunted and defiant against a world in arms? 

"If they fall they will fall as nobly as ever a people fell, and we the Celts may not for- 
bear to honor a race that knew how to live and die as men. We, too, in Ireland were once 
men. Let us be men again, and agree to defend our country for ourselves." 

In an extraordinary speech dealing with the war and Ireland's connection 
with it, Mr. Laurence Ginnel, M. P. for North Westmeath, at a meeting of the 
**Westmeath Independent Nationalist Executive, U. I. L.," on the 6th inst., said: 

"The inventors of atrocities attributed to the Germans could find in any chapter or page 
of the history of English rule in Ireland, horrors far more atrocious than the worst they have 
yet invented, all committed in Ireland not by Huns, but by Englishmen calling themselves 
Anglo-Saxons." (Hear, hear.) Proceeding, the speaker referred to the "robbery, so far as 
fire and sword and the law could do it," of the men, women and children, priests' and 
monks, teachers and scholars, of religion, of learning, of prosperity, of the right to live, 
and hunted like wild beasts in their own land; massacred in cold blood; robbed of the food 
grown from their own labor; starved to death; drowned in shiploads in the Atlantic, until 
the London "Times" cried out that Celts were gone with a vengeance." 

"The strain of the period through which we are passing," says the "Catholic Bulletin." 
of Dublin, "is making itself felt in many directions. The effect of the war has been to drive 
many people from their employment, and while seriously raising the cost of the most ordi- 
nary necessities of life, to severely injure struggling business. The sudden dismissal of 
certain officials from their employment and the newness of the method of deportation with- 
out trial, adopted in some instances, has accentuated this feeling. Even in our checkered 
history we have no parallel for the virtual suppression, within a week, of four Irish news- 
papers, without invoking the aid of the law, and the stoppage of the circulation in Ireland 
of two or more Irish-American newspapers." 

SEUMAS MAGMANUS TO PATRICK EGAN 
(From the New York American.) 

"National President Ryan, of Mr. Redmond's United Irish League, recently went on a Ger- 
man platform in Philadelphia and expressed his sentiments in bold and unmistakable terms. 
National President McLaughlin, of the A. O. H., has also spoken in denunciation. And Mr"^ 
Redmond, who had been on the point of coming to America for a convention of the U. I. L., 
suddenly and wisely cancelled his sailing. He has no newspaper of any cons,equence and no 
Irish national society supporting him here now. 



118 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

"When, a long generation ago, Mr. Egan was bravely fighting Ireland's fight, in Ireland, 
and Buckshot Foster and his ilk were seizing and suppressing the national press and throw- 
ing men by the hundred into jail without trial; and the London "Times" and its envenomed 
kind were referring to our papers as the reptile press, and saying they were subsidized by 
American money and by Russian money and French money, dare any man have told Mr. 
Egan then that a day would come when he would stand up with the London "Times," ex- 
cusing the same tyranny by the same unworthy arguments and actually flinging the self- 
same unworthy reproaches at the undaunted few who dared for their suffering country's 
sake to defy the tyrant and risked their worldly goods, their liberty and their lives, to pro- 
claim the truth. Sad was the day, O Hon. Pat. Egan, when, yielding to the seduction of 
Asquith the diplomat, you let him inveigle your too trustful legs under his malign mahogany." 

From the Irish World: 

"The English have a habit of manufacturing atrocities when they desire to discredit a 
people opposed to them or whom they are fighting. During the South African War every 
Anglicized channel of public information was flooded with descriptions of Boer outrages, 
but it developed later that it was the English themselves who committed the inhuman crimes 
which they so industriously and impudently charged against the Boer. 

"The British soldiers used dum-dum bullets against the Boers, just as they are now 
using them against the Germans, but what a howl was raised in England when the Boer 
after capturing large quantities of those dum-dum bullets proceeded to shoot them at their 
original owners! In the Boer War England murdered in the Concentration Camps, 20,000 
Boer women and children and her soldiers burned every farm-house to which they could 
put the torch, so that the Boers might have no place to which they could return for shelter. 
Yet these same English now raise their hands to Heaven in mock horror when a German 
shell hits a building in Belgium or France,, even though the structure is in the zone of fire 
or used for military purposes. 

"Manufacturing atrocities is a peculiarly English industry, and the manufacturers nearly 
always use the same plans and specifications. 

"As far back as 1641, when the Irish of Ulster rose and drove the Scotch and English 
■"planters" from the homes and lands which had fbelonged to those Irish themselves and 
which had been wrung from them by war, England raised the cry of massacre, but not a 
word of condemnation was uttered by the English previously when the whole population of 
Island Magee, men, women and children, was brutally done to death by the British garrison 
of Carrickfergus. 

"On every occasion when the Irish have tried to shake off the English yoke or remedy 
their unfortunate condition, the same cry of atrocities has been raised in England: 'The 
Catholics have arranged to massacre the Protestants,' the English screamed, and a great 
many fools believed the fake. 

"Last year when the miserable little Home Rule Bill was being discussed, the English 
renewed the atrocity cry. Hundreds of thousands of copies of an eight-page pamphlet de- 
picting on the title page Irishmen cutting the breasts off Protestant women with an instru- 
ment like a hedge shears, and crucifying, beating out the brains or burning to death other 
Protestants, were distributed throughout England and the Continent. 

"One of the pictures — that on the left hand side of the first page of the pamphlet — has 
been used since the outbreak of the present European war to represent Germans cutting off 
the breasts of Belgian women and beating them to death. The descriptive reading matter 
at the bottom of the picture only was changed." 

As I read this, a creepy feeling comes on me. A lump rises in my throat. 
Great God I Surely it cannot be that Sir Conan Doyle is one of these Official 
Atrocity-Manufacturers. Surely he was not lying about that Congo business that 
froze our souls? Yet, here he is glibly, but absolutely without any authentic 
specification, slandering the Germans. Has he been a monster all along, or has 
Sherlock's dope-needle merely done its fatal work at last? The latter. His blister- 
ing diatribe against Belgium was true, because the kodak backed it, and the kodak 
don't lie. So let's breathe again and exonerate Sir Conan from the charge of 
Official Atrocitator. 

Rev. Patrick Turner in the Birmingham Age-Herald: 

"From what I read in the English and Anglo-Irish press during the first two months of 
the war I would have concluded that Ireland had become violently loyal to England. From 
what I observed in going about amongst the people of Ireland in city and country I concluded 
that the new born loyalty was confined to newspaper offices and political headqiiarters. The 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. 119 

people of Ireland have not changed their attitude toward England; they consider that it is 
not their war in any sense of the word, and would be well satisfied to see England humbled; 
for the supremacy of English commerce has always meant the destruction of Irish industry. 

" 'The Belgians were the most industrious, sober, educated and religious people on earth. 
Rally to the defense of the brave little Catholic Belgium!' Such was the appeal made to 
Ireland. There were, however, many people in Ireland who remembered the lurid accounts 
printed in the English papers a few years ago of the Belgian atrocities in the Congo. Then, 
the Belgians were so cruel, bloodthirsty, and barbarous, that in the name of humanity, Eng- 
land was almost forced to take possession of the Congo territory. 

"The Irish were called upon to avenge the destruction of Louvain with its great library 
containing so many priceless Irish manuscripts. Ireland felt the loss of Louvain, if it is lost, 
for many of our Irish priests were educated there in the days of persecution. But Ireland 
also remembered that those same Irish priests sought shelter in Louvain because or Eng- 
lish, not German, persecution. 

"In the city of Dublin on the first Sunday in August, 1914, the armed forces of the 
crown shot down defenseless women and children. But they were nationalist women and 
children; that of course made it not only thinkable but right and just." 

Lord Derby has just published the results of a recruiting experiment at the 
Liverpool and Everton football matches on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. The 
total attendance at the two matches was 47,299. Theer were 16,000 cards, in- 
viting young men of military age to join the army, distributed. Of this number 
1,034 were returned. 

Of the 47,299 who gathered at the Liverpool and Everton football matches to 
enjoy themselves while England may be in her death agonies, how many do you 
suppose volunteered to risk their lives in defense of their native land? Lord 
Derby tells us that of this number only 206 signified a willingness to go to the 
firing line. In other words, 47,000 were more interested in the outcome of a foot- 
ball game than they were in the game of war in which the fate of Nations, Eng- 
land's included, is the stake played for. 

John Bull, an English publication, says: "Why are we holding our big meet- 
ing on Thursday evening at Albert Hall? To wake up London. Yes, that is the 
answer. There is altogether something wrong with the capital of the British 
Empire and unless somebody stirs up things a bit — well, we may have a rude 
awakening. The truth is that the combined effort of the Party machine has failed. 
Any of the recruiting officers will tell you that none of the meetings so far held 
under the auspices of the Parliamentary Committee has been followed by a rush 
of enlistments. They have all fallen flat.'* 

To meet this heart-rending situation the Times advocates conscription, "par- 
ticularly," it says, "in Ireland." This would obviate, don't you know, the self- 
evident atrocity of taking the English youth from the football games. 

Extracts from a remarkably able and conservative economic expose in the 
Irish World by John F. Kelly: 

"England has well nigh persuaded the world that the Irish famine was a "Visitation of 
Providence," a judgment upon the slothful and thriftless Irish, and that she generously came 
to the rescue. I have no intention of again relating the horrors of that time, when the food 
contributed by America was alowed to rot in the storehouses of the government to keep it 
out of the hands of the starving Irish. What I wish to bring out here is, that there was no 
need for help from outside. Ireland possessed plenty of food for her people. Had this food 
been retained in Ireland, as any native government would have kept it, there would have been 
no famine. The English government, however, ordered its soldiers and police to see that the 
food left Ireland. Then out of pure pity for the suffering Irish, it opened its ports to the food 
of the world so that the price of the Irish shipments was lowered. Force and fraud and pious 
pretence were combined as usual. In this connection, it must not be lost sight of that the 
Devon Commission had reported before the famine in favor of reducing the Irish population 
by two millions. The famine was the machinery used for carrying out that recommendation." 

Quoting from L. Paul DuBois's Contemporary Ireland, Mr. Kelley proceeds: 

"The police in Scotland cost 400.000 pounds ($2,000,000), in Ireland 1,300,000 pounds 
($6,500,000.) For every hundred thousand people there are 57.9 in prisons in England, 68.S 
in Scotland, and only 5S.i inlreland. In the neighborhood of this village there has been no 
serous crime for the last half century, and during that time the population of the district 



120 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

has fallen to half, but the number of the police steadily increases. The members of the force 
are the only prosperous people in the place. 

"Were England's aim only the exploitation of Ireland, she would allow prosperity so as to 
enable herself to take the more. A farmer does not expect to succeed by starving his land 
or his cattle. But a prosperous Ireland would be a strong Ireland — a possible prospective 
rival. This is what England will never permit. So she has determined on Ireland's destruc- 
tion. Irishmen all over the world, what do you say?" 



BRICK-BATS AND SHILLALAHS 



Says the Ninth Edition of the Encyck)paHlia Brittanica, (eliminated from 
the Eleventh Edition, however — must have had a censor next time) : 

"There is abundant evidence to prove that Ireland was prepared to make use 
of these advantages, that only impolitic trade restrictions have prevented her 
from developing commerce, which would undoubtedly have vied with that of 
Great Britain. » * • ♦ These restrictions, however, imposed when the great 
manufacturing interests were in their early infancy, not only snatched from her 
the possibility of commercial greatness, but operating along with other legisla- 
tion, doomed her to agricultural stagnation and centuries of poverty and distress." 

Says John F. Kelly: "Ireland is not only being depopulated, but the char- 
acter of the remaining population is being altered. It is becoming increasingly 
an aged population. The very old have remarkably increased in proportion, 
while the children have decreased not only in number but their ratio to the whole 
population is enormously reduced. This is not race suicide, but race murder. 

"Every Irishman owes it to his country, the race and the world to work for 
the breaking-up of the British Empire into its constituent parts. Either the Em- 
pire or Ireland must die. This is no declaration of war on the English people, 
unless they wish it so. We do not dispute their right to their land nor to their 
governing themselves as they see fit; but it is a denial that there can be an al- 
liance between Irish nationalists and the "British democracy" that does not fully 
recognize Irish freedom." 

"Ireland needs the assistance of Irish in America now more than ever and 
should England be victorious in the present war, Ireland will need that assistance 
still more, unless Irish Nationalism has been dreaming and awakes to find itself 
'but still a slave.' " — The Hibernian, Boston, Mass. 

Says Harold Begbie in the London Daily Chronicle of recent date: "Until 
I came to America I had not the least idea of the depth of hatred w^hich has ex- 
isted among Irish-Americans toward England." 

"They are killing men and women on the streets of Dublin Town." 

"A^o Irish need apply." 

Now, these are merely a few pages (out of many volumes) of England's con- 
crete, physical Atrocities. Let us investigate the Spiritual ones as well. 

To start with, her campaign of slander against Germany, which started 
years ago as a propaganda to poison the minds of the world, was a most in- 
famous atrocity; particularly anent militarism. But even more vilely 
atrocious was her sedulously inculcated system of libels against the Kaiser. Here 
is something no good man on earth can condone; for it is a blow below the soul 
belt, a blow that can't be returned by an honest man. It is worse than a mere 
body blow. It is an attempt to murder something ten thousand times more pre- 
cious than the mere physical entity. It is an attempt to murder character. 

Not more atrocious, but simply more pusillanimous, was the enormous out- 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. 



121 



hatch and world-wide dissemination of the monstrous lies about German atroci- 
ties after the war started. Here was the attempt to stab the character of a whole 
nation in the back, while it was fighting valorously for its life in front. No won- 
der Lord Shelborne, former High Commissioner for South Africa, wrote to the 
London Times of Sept. 15th, these frank and manly words — but, alas, to no avail: 

"The civilized world is entitled to names and particulars. Either these statements ar« 
true or false. If false, the "Times" would certainly regret to circulate them; it would feel 
that our just cause would be irreparably injured by such an insult to the Gei-man army. If 
true, God and man will demand justice." 

But not a single name or reputable particular was given except that of the 
Hume girl, and she was sent to prison as a cloak to give credence to the lying gen- 
eralities the Doylcs and their ilk continued to spawn and incubate. 




What England openly declares she proposes to do to Germany and Austria-Hungary. 

— From Sydney "Bulletin." 

How infernally atrocious, too, her openly acknowledged, aye proudly pub- 
lished, even blatantly boasted intention to starve out and thus slow-murder the 
millions of helpless women and children of Germany! This arch-brute of all 
organic life is the past master in his partciular line, as witness the wretched con- 
centradoing of Boer women and children. What is the difference in murdering 
the sixty million German women and children by starvation and murdering them 
outright with bombs and dum-dums? Absolutely none in actual result. The pro- 
cess is simply a longer one; that's all. Things that are equal to the same thing are 
equal to each other. But England's whole political life, her whole litigious juris- 
prudence even, is built up on the attempt to evade this great axiom, to weave 
disconcerting or hypnotizing sophistry over the brain and substitute Technicality 
for logic. She becomes thus technically absolved from the unquestioned mur- 
der of helpless multi-millions by slow starvation, although logically guilty with 
the guilt of Hell itself — and she puts it over on us dead easy and gets away with it I 

But the most heinous, monstrous, of all atrocities, the arch-atrocity of all 
the ages as the future Historian is bound to record it, was the declaring war on 
her own blood, joining the Slav, and then hiring black-and-tan hellions to slaughter 
her own blood, and then complicating the terrible raciality of the dastard prop- 
osition by bringing in the Yellow Jap, and giving him his entering wedge for 
future Yellow Supremacy. 



122 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



**But the shocking crime of antagonizing Japan against Germany in East Asia 
will never be forgiven by the Almighty God without atonement." — Prof. Hall. 



Would I were a painter. I would make this pitcure: A stupendous body 
stretching over one-third of the land and all the oceans of the earth; corrugated 
with huge plates into enormous segments, each with powerful muscular arrange- 
ments for separate action. 

From one segment protrude lithe, treacherous looking semi-trunks ending 
in mighty lion's limbs with dripping claws; from another, huge dripping tusks; 
another, red rhinoceros horns; another, multitudinous hyena heads burrowing 
far a-yonder in bloody graves; another, sharp fox noses perking out from cun- 
ning, eager eyes. 





ri 




^ I 


^ 


w'pa 


i 


1 '-*% 4 


m 


Kl^^Pj 




1 




1 


^^m 





From "Die Muskete." 

Thousands of outlandish land-legs claw the soil and thousands more, flap- 
shaped, paddle in the seas. 

This monster should be a double-amphibion, awkwardly adapted to earth, 
air, water, and, most especially, mud; a left-over of the geological ages: like the 
archaeopteryx, with wings on its myriad feet and feathers on its thousand pre- 
hensile tails; like the Fihamphorynchiis with finger-wings, tail-feathers, and com- 
bined bill, beak, and teeth of fish, bird, and reptile. 

The huge body segments bespeak the gigantic sloth and the enormous or- 
ganic waste of the ponderous megalasaur. 

From the main body-centers, out through the segment grooves, centrifugate 
uncountable contractile octopian arms, ending in vastly expansile, flat, rubber- 
looking, suction-suggestion discs for smothering. 

All along the looming body segments intermittently seem to burgeon bright 
spots of red which look like roses and lure the thoughtless bees and humming 
birds in shape of man into their depths and close on them forever; the while great 
streams of crocodile tears flow from huge body-eyes ranged like port-holes in 
regular intervals along the looming segments. 



ATROCITIES, BARBARISM, VANDALISM. 123 

Its other general colors are mottled, brindled, snake-figured, and such like, 
all localized to the landscape and immediate environs to lure unsuspecting prey 
within death-deal. 

And I would paint it in action, and have it throw unlimited antenna; in great 
elastic outstretch into the air, and have them feel for human prey and anon 
shower down great quiverfuls of poisoned porcupinal quills. 

And I would limn it in slow motion, too; and watch the octopian discs spread 
out to starve and smother; — one over India, another China, from which opium 
exudes, another South Africa. Out from under the awful peripheries of these 
discs protrude multi-million limbs of muscular men and shapely women and tiny 
children, shrinking and perishing as we gaze. And the most terrible arm of 
all would be extended in frantic and futile paroxyms at Germany and Austria- 
Hungary; and, as it convulsively out-clutched it would be hacked and shot and 
nitro-blasted, too fast for sight, the while its disc-ribs would stretch on from the 
perimeter and spasmodically signal to all the black-and-tan hellions of the world 
to murder the best developed type of the human race. 

To complete the picture, hinge its nervous-centre back on its haunches as 
they loom semi-squat over England; while its huge diplodocan whip-tipped 
main-tail hangs over Ireland and two huge hind-web-feet rest flatly on her, cut- 
ting off the air from her children and pressing them to slow but certain death. 

And I would label this picture: THE UNIVERSAL ENEMY I ENGLAND, 
THE MONSTER OF THE AGES. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE WORLD ON FIRE; OR ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO 
By an American Anglo Saxon 

I am a full-blooded Southern American Anglo-Saxon. Southern people are by 
far the fullest strain of Anglo-Saxon blood in America. 

One of my ancestors was a Puritan on the Mayflower (of course I cannot be 
held responsible for this.) He may have confined his military activities to the 
witches and those who didn't agree with his religious views. My other ancestors 
were Englishmen who settled in Virginia, and branched out to other Southern 
States. They were of course, a more liberal element than the Puritan; in which 
fact I take, as I think, an entirely just pride. I am peculiarly proud of the fact 
that scores of my Southern antecedents, direct and collateral, were officers in 
our Revolutionary War against England, and also in the war against her in 1812. 

This book is published with the hope of giving the Southern people the true 
facts about this dreadful war. 

Our Southern people as a whole, know but little of Germany history and civ- 
ilization. By Civilization I mean Culture, which means uniform and orderly Ad- 
vancement and Advanceability; in other words (to use the terms of universally 
accepted Philosophy) : the best present Adaptation and (judging from the past) 
the inherently, best future Adaptability to Environment: — Environment being the 
Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Laws of Nature. National Culture, thus means a 
Nation's Adaptation and Adaptability: measured in proper proportion by the 
National Aggregate; the Uniformity and Extent of its Distribution among the 
Citizen-Mass; and the Individual Average of the Citizen-Unit. 

By this true and exacting test, German Culture easily leads the world. And, 
it goes without saying that the world, which needs it as a guide so greatly, should 
not permit it to be crushed. In fact it cannot be crushed; since its very defini- 
tion carries inherently, first of all, the idea of Adaptation to Self-Defense. Surely, 
then, in the present ruthless attempt to crush it through a ghastly ganglion of 
unnatural racial alliances and hired black-and-tan hellions, our whole sympathy, 
alike from tradition, racial environment, and natural instinct, should be with 
our German kin; — for every full-blooded Anglo-Saxon is a German. The Angles 
and Saxons were both wholly German. So, if England is our Great-Grandmother, 
Germany is certainly our Great-Great-Grandmother. 

This poem boiled up in my heart during the first week of the war; kept urg- 
ing until jotted down during the sixth week; and was reduced to its present 
form (with a few late additions from time to time suggested ]>y developing 
events) during the eighth week. It was submitted first to some personal friends 
and then to a few high critics, all of whom urged its publication. 

It was so bold, however, in its assumption of England's prime responsibility 
for the war, that, fearing my intuition might be incorrect, I hesitated; oscillating 
between the horror of doing possibly a heinous wrong and the ever intensifying 
conviction that my intuition was correct; until my original suspicions finally 
crystalized into certainty when, in December, I got access for the first time, to 
the oiTcial negotiations that led up to the war. 

As I view it now, I can't see how I ever felt any "Compunctious hesitings of 
Conscience;" for I should have remembered how England had tried her best to 
butcher her own offspring, her American Colonies — my own grandparents, in our 
Revolutionary War, even hiring for the purpose the torch and tomahawk of the 
Indian: — repeating the damnable atrocity in 1812. It would seem that I had but 
glozed over these incidents, (though chronicled in the very History I had studied 
at school,) no doubt hypnotized by the incessant clatter of her pious protestations 
of repentance and reform; subconsciously assuming that, unlike the leopard, she 
could change her spots. Besides, hadn't she in the interim produced Tyndall, 
Spencer, Huxley, — aye Darwin, the greatest brain that ever blessed the Planet? 



ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO. 125 

Hadn't she also produced Gladstone, the humanitarian statesman? Aye, hadn't 
she given the world, (next to Goethe), the greatest poet of Philosophy; who also 
stood absolutely at the top of all the poetry of Spiritual Psychology; whose 
single poem, Locksley Hall, had never been equalled by any single poem in any 
age or land before and probably never will be surpassed in all the future "Files 
of Time?" Didn't such products prove that she had grown both wiser and bet- 
ter? But, even so, didn't China produce Confucius? Greece, Plato? Rome, 
Csesar? Palestine, Christ — and where are those civilizations now? 

So, ever in my mind I had to "give pause" and remember that single great in- 
dividual products don't necessarily signify aggregate improvement — nay, in such 
a case, under the Law of Compensation, wouldn't they rather suggest that Nature, 
in its Providence, had had to produce such strong leaders because the people, 
as a whole, and with such vast responsibilities, were so weak that, without such 
leaders, they couldn't endure? Was it not because of such a law that England 
had, decades prior to her colossal crime of 1776 produced both of the Bacons 
who blazed the way for future science; and Newton, the Immortal; aye, very 
many decades before 177C, had produced Shakespeare, easily the Universal Em- 
peror of Psychological Poetry, not merely Emotional, and Intellectual, but, up to 
his time. Spiritual as well? Aye, didn't her Pitt, even during her brutal use of 
the Indian to butcher us, protest against it in immortal eloquence in open Par- 
liament? 

At any rate, the Boer war finally disillusioned me completely. It proved to 
my mind absolutely that a land that could be influenced by Pitt, Gladstone, and 
Tennyson, could be even more easily captured and driven by Rhodes, Chamber- 
lain, and Kipling — in other words, that England has grown top-heavy, not hav- 
ing a large solid, conservative, middle class to guide its policies, and that de- 
generation has finally set in. In fine, her population, broadly speaking, seems 
now essentially made up of a small upper class, the shrewdest— as well as the 
most unscrupulous — in the world, and an irresponsible, ultra-impressionable, 
wholly cockneyish lower class. 

But the most alarming side-phase of that infernal war on the Boers, was the 
fact that by America, "The land of the free and home of the brave," England was 
permitted without official protest, to butcher the Boers, and destroy a Republic 
— a Republic which had won for itself certainly the right to live, to grow, and, if 
fitted, to survive — aye, I say, by America, a fellow Republic, which this same 
England had twice tried to murder, England was permitted to destroy the Boers 
and their Republic — with protest only from a small section of our Press. 

Why, I couldn't and can't yet, for the life of me, surmise. But the shameful 
and menacing fact stands out that our Press, and, through it, many of our states- 
men and good citizens, have, in some way, been influenced by English agencies 
into the amazingly grotesque and terribly ominous psychological state of assum- 
ing that everything that England does is right and that she has a perfect right to 
everything she wants. That she has the right to break any treaty; aye, to build 
up the most effective militarism on earth for crushing weaker peoples, even Re- 
publics; while Germany is not to be accorded even the fundamental right to make 
a quick friendly march to save her own life through the land of a neighbor whom 
she had protected for 75 years, nor to build up, at less relative expense than any 
other first-class European power, a military establishment designed to make her 
secure against two conspiring contiguous neighbors, one of whom, for 40 (and 
the other for at least 20) years, had held her murder always in its heart. 

And oh, it is soul-sickening, the way our Press has pushed the present prop- 
aganda to mislead the world, organized by England even before the war started: 
the most stupendous, comprehensive, systematic poison-campaign the world has 
ever seen. 

1 repeat, I cannot see how our Press has been thus influenced, nor how it has 
so hypnotized our people. But the fact remains, nevertheless. So, it is the pur- 
pose of this work, the only contribution I am now able to make (published at my 
own expense,) to do as much as possible, (particularly in the South) toward dis- 
pelling this hypnotism and counteracting this appalling poison-propaganda. 

THE AUTHOR. 



126 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

INVOCATION 

God's lifted finger, looms a spire, 

And now the city's windows gleam. 
Our shadow races with the stream. 

And still the ship climbs high and higher, 
But not so high as soars my dream, 

But no swift as my desire. 

From George Sylvester Viereck's "Song of the Zeppelin," in the "International. 



No blame for France; because Alsace-Loraine 

Is seared with caustic on her harrowed heart. 

None for the big white Bear; because no brute 

Is held amenable to moral law. 

And none for yellow Nippon; her slim islands 

Do cramp her giant growth. She must expand 

Or atrophy. But whither shall she turn? 

The white race hath pre-empted every land; 

Hence Nippon's only chance to grow doth lie 

Through white men's fresh-made graveyards. Nippon wins 

Whoever loses in the present war 

Provided only whites enough be slain 

And hatreds deep and fierce enough engendered. 

But ah, for England! Curse of God and man 
Will settle on her head forevermore; 
For that she quit her owm kith and blood kin 
And joined the Slav and Jap to butcher them. 

Curse on her keen and characteristic cunning: 

As when she cuts in twain the German cable 

To keep the fresh facts from America; 

Converting her own into monster trot-lines, 

Baiting and doping them most dexterously 

To catch us suckers of the Nation-Gullible 

— And we gulped the gudgeon to our bellies' bottom. 

Curse on the vacuous ceremonials 

Of that pompous, priggish Primogeniture-dom 

That hypnotize a parvenu contingent 

Of simpering snobs who write Res publica 

In apposition to their country's name. 

The cheapest acts of cockney condescension 

Do ecstasize their microscopic souls 

Till they would fight America for England. 

Curse on the subterranean streams of influence 

That flow out to her economic allies, 

Our money-changers, who dish out the dope 

To all the truckling, toadying, subsidized press, 

And have their treacherous columns daily din it, 

That lost Prosperity cannot return 

Till Germany is overthrown and crushed. 

Curse on her Diplomatic School of Cuttlefish 
Who squirt their ink to keep the waters darkened 
And prove black white, lies truth, injustice justice. 
Curse on her spawn of arrogant Ephemerals 
Incurably a-scratch with "Sribblers Itch," 
Consistent caterers to cockney hand-claps. 



ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO. 



127 



Who call themselves the Intellectuals. 
Affecting emotions that they do not feel 
They strive alone to seem and not to be, 
Their highest aim but to evoke applause. 
All-surface squibsters who ne'er read aright 
A line of Science or Philosophy, 
They write to tickle rather than to teach. 




Wrote one: "Lest we forget, lest we forget I" 

And ere the ink upon the paper dried 

He had forgot — and England had forgot. 

Out-jingoing all the jingoes he lit in 

And stirred the cockney heart against the Boers. 



128 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



His latest ebullition is "The Allies," 

In which he fairly slobbers over France 

(England's ancient enemy from the year of One, 

Who has shed a thousand tanks of British blood) 

But somehow fails to mention Adam-Zad; 

And yellow Nippon; and dear Fuzzy Wuzz, 

Exemplified in Turco, Senegalese, 

And Sepoy — helping bear the White Man's Burden. 

And, Oh, a doubly everlasting curse 

On her Humanitarian Pretensions, 

Her vaunted Peace-Proclivities, her Honor, 

Inflexible Fidelity to Promise: — 

(That very celebrated, sacred honor 

Consistent but in inconsistency; 

Far less than Launcelot's; for, with him at least 

"Honor so rooted in Dishonor stood 

That Faith unfaithful made him falsely True.") 



mm§.^^ 




t^^^ ^ i^^- :.■; 



y^?:# 



From Des Moines "Reg-ster and Leader." 

Two cases typical, out of ten thousand 

That, thick as Autumn leaves, bestrew the annals 

Of this High Priest of Humanitarianism 

(This old perennial pie-crust Promiser 

Who never made a promise but that, if 

The element of interest entered in. 

It would suffice to change the whole equation.) 

England's Treatment of Her American Colonies. 



She promised — did "Perfidious Albion" — 

Her struggling children of America, 

— She promised fish and gave them serpents; bread, 

And gave them stones. And when they then rebelled 

She sought to slay her oft'spring; aye, she hired, 

The Indian with his torch and tomahawk 

To butcher them! Even as she now employs 

The fiendish Senegalese and fell Sepoy 

To butcher her own German kith and kin: 

And, later, tried the self-same hellish tactics, 

Aye, sacked and burned our National Capitol. 



ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO. 129 

The Boer War. 

She is the selfsame England she was then. 
A modern instance truly typifying 
Her beatific, boundless love of peace: 
Hark back unto her treatment of the Boers. 

Although obscure, almost unknown, without 

Prestige among the nations of the world 

With, prima facie, everything to lose 

And naught to gain, they offered arbitration! 

An offer that will live while God's self lives, 

In scintillating letters high as Heaven 

Broad as from sun to sun, their figures formed 

By alternating rainbows and auroras I 

Ha! England? Boasted Churchman of the Nations? 

Not a mere common, quiet, optional Christian, 

But Christ's own national agent and Vicegerent, 

With an Established Church, the pretended graft 

Of Christ Himself upon the government! — 

Ho, what said Christian England to the offer? 

That lucre-lusting Isle of Ancient Avarice, 

Smirking with sanctimonious simulation. 

Fresh from the Nations' Conference of Peace, 

Prating of Universal Arbitration, 

Did reason thus: "We needs must have this War. 

True, we will damn the decalogue-entire 

In order better to effectuate 

Our special rupture of the eighth Command; 

And will cut the throat of Christ's philosophy; 

And give the lie unto our peace professions 

And Arbitration-yawpings at the Conference: 

— But think of the golden guineas we will gain! 

Ten thousand quarts, or so, of virile blood. 

Some millions of pounds sterling, and behold! 

The glittering mines are ours! — And, then, the quarts 

Will not flow from the precious Politicians' 

And God's Anointed Money-schemers' veins; 

(The tribe of yellow-blooded parasites 

Who start the wars and, while brave men are fighting, 

Skulk back behind and howl away at home!) 

"Then, too, the pile of necessary pounds 

Comes nimbly from the stupid people's pockets." 

Thus madly reasoning, bloody-minded England, 

Prize Pharisee of all the Planet's peoples. 

Yelled out: "We fight for Progress, Givillizationl" 

And — utterly refused to arbitrate! 

Hurling the issue forth so square and high, 

So rigidly up-looming and out-jutting. 

And unobscurable by slight side-issues 

That an illiterate fool, a-run, could read; 

And so we find its still the Same Old England. 
In this infernalist of all the wars. 
What crafty old John Bull did think and say. 
And thinks and says unto himself is this: 



130 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

John Bull's Soliloquy. 

At last I have my opportunity. 

The story is quite simple and instructive. 

Away back in the fog of History 

The Germans took Alsace-Lorraine and held 

It as their own for full eight hundred years. 

Then France caught them exhausted and did filch 

These provinces away, ruled over them, 

And, as decadent nations do impart 

Decadence to their conquered provinces, 

She did he-French theuL Germany kept virile; 

Took back Alsace and a portion of Lorraine 

To secure a mountain barrier's protection 

— And France took the eternal mulligrubs. 

Alsace-Lorraine, 

For forty years she nursed the grudge. When'er 

In all that time a Frenchman did get drunk 

Enough to straightly speak his mind, he boasted 

"Some day we'll take back dear Alsace-Lorraine." 

They nursed the grievance, taught it to their children 

Till it became a National Institution. 

But the "Blood and Iron" Chancellor held the helm 

And France could only glare and grit her teeth 

In voiceless rage and grief for her two lost cubs. 

But soon the clouds did seem to show a rift: 

Young Wilhelm took the throne, cut curious capers; 

Climaxed his seeming antics by discharging 

The "Blood and Iron" pilot. "Ho," thought France 

"Mine hour approaches; give the youngster rope 

And he will hang himself." But with discretion, 

To make assurance doubly sure, she first 

Made firm alliance with aspiring Russia; 

For Russia sought to reach an open sea 

In order to drive in the opening wedge 

For her long-purposed universal empire; — 

But Germany lay always 'thwart her way. 

I trembled then for Germany. Her hour 

Of doom seemed come. She was of my own blood 

(The best corpuscles in my blood are German) 

I ne'er did harbor maudlin sentiment; 

But France and Russia had their hapless victim 

Between two millstones — and if they should crush him 

Then 'twould be: Look out England — your time nextl** 

So I did lend the stripling influence 

And held his would-be crushers off for years. 

.loHN Bull Describes Wilhelm, 

But all were soon dumbfounded by that boy. 
He seemed to take on wisdom with the years. 
He showed the Instinct of Self-Preservation 
Without which our immortal Darwin proved 
An individual, nation, race, or species 
Must perish soon or late. 

He made his army 
The greatest in the world. Strangest of all 
He grasped the idea like an inspiration 
That Commerce is the great, all-opening key 



ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO. 131 

To modern progress and prosperity, 

And, hence, unto his Empire's evolution. 

So he did start ten thousand wheels a-whirr 

And specked the uttermost seas with scudding ships; 

Aye, with acumen equal to my own, 

He did begin to build great battleships 

To buttress-up and thus insure his Commerce. 

(Thank God! He had a stupid, grudging Reichstag, 

Who would not vote him half of what he wished 

And should have had. But for that pregnant fact 

Today I would not have him bottled up.) 

It was the very wonder of the age 

How that young stripling's Commerce did expand. 

His patient, plodding, persevering people 

Took Science into everything they touched 

And gradually led the world in all the lines. 

My admiration changed to envy — then 

To miserable, morbid apprehension — 

And, finally to downright enmity 

As he took from me market after market. 

England Joins France and Russia. 

Seven years ago I joined with France and Russia 
In what we called a merely friendly union 
— As we each one did wink the other eye — 
To quite complete the complex murder-cordon, 
A little later, with his Eastern foe, 
Japan the Yellow, I made firm alliance, 
Pretending at the time 'twas but defensive — 
But now the secret's out and the whole world knows 
It was offensive likewise; aye, was aimed 
Directly at our joint foe, Germany. 

WiLHELM Visits His Uncle Edward. 

*Twas enough to put hot hell in Wilhelm's heart, 

But most confidingly he trusted me. 

He came to visit his "Dear Uncle Edward.** 

How his ingenuous countenance did glow 

With prosperous aflfection o'er the table! 

We'd almost bleed internally, take the jim-jams 

As we'd respond to toast of kinsman-friendship. 

But it was easy how we put it over — 

Like taking candy from a little child. 

Ah, how the self-complacent German chump 

Did dilate, efTervesce, exuberate. 

And brag about his army and his navy I 

How affability oozed from every pore 

As he would nudge his uncle and exclaim: 

"Look to your Commerce, or I'll overtake you.'* 

(The unsuspecting dolt failed to observe 

His nudge was like a spear in Edward's side, 

His every syllable a piercing dart.) 

And when I sought to take the glittering mines 

For civilization's sake from the barbarous Boers 

The quintessential idiot in his zeal 

Became so utterly, gratuitously, 

Ridiculously, super-serviceable 

That, with the aid of his able General Staff, 

He mapped out for us a military plan 

(We may have used it — though I don't recall.) 



132 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

The officious friendly fool even went so far 
As to stand off all of the other nations 
And thus enable us to whip the Boers — 
This, too, although his heart bled for the Boers, 
And he would fain have warded off the war; 
But when my jingoes forced it anyhow 
He felt that Boer success meant England's death, 
His own blood's most abject humiliation, 
An irreparable blow to Civilization. 

He was the great Peace-Keeper of the times. 

Peace, Peace, was what he needed; for, with peace 

His Commerce fast was conquering the world, 

And piling up his prosperity to the skies. 

So rich was he becoming, in a decade 

Or so, he would be rich enough to buy 

All territory needed for expansion, 

Yea, any sized segment of the world he wanted. 

John Bull Intrigues to Destroy Wilhelm's Empiriv. 

Of course, I had to put a final stop 

To this eternal menace; so, I set 

My wits to work to compass his destruction. 

First it became incumbent to inspire 

With dread and most uncompromising hatred 

My own uniquely credulous Cockneydom, 

Who are, at heart, and, as a whole, quite honest 

And would not countenance the overthrow 

Of their own blood without supremest cause 

(For the best corpuscles in their blood are German). 

So I did deftly circulate the hint 

Of Militarism and Pan-Germanism, 

Whispered it most mysteriously to the scribes. 

And in a jiffy they were squirting ink. 

Ere long my Innocents were filled chock full 

Of the Pan-Germanic Militarism-Moloch 

And his War Lord who designed to crush the world. 

And every time he built a boat or air-ship 

I proved to them it was for their destruction. 

And then I had to poison neutral Countries 

With all the artful adjuvants of intrigue 

And devious Diplomacy. At length 

I estranged from him apostate Italy. 

I stopped at nothing. What did grind me most 

Was that I had to pander these late years. 

In Europe and in Asia, unto Russia — 

But it is worth the price: business is business. 

Most deftly dipping into German politics 

I pushed an Anti-Naval Propaganda. 

Plies America. 

But most assiduously I plied my arts 

Upon America — and with success 

Beyond my utmost sanguine expectation. 

Those suckers are so stupid and so soft 

'Tis scarcely sport to land them. When their tourists 

Did crowd by tens of thousands to my shores, 



ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO. 133 

Too utterly illiterate to know better, 

— They had nothing heard or read of Germany, 

(Their only mental picture of a German 

Was a big, gruff, bloated, guttural beer-guzzler) 

— Why, they couldn't speak a single word of German, 

Or even simple English, for that matter, 

But only crude and crass United States, 

And that but poorly: — 'twas a soft, soft snap 

To feed them frightful, ogreish War Lord tales, 

Of how the soldiers in Berlin do thrust 

Their swords for pastime through civilians* stomachs, 

Especially non-German-speaking foreigners; 

To shock them with descriptions of the dread 

Discomforts tourists have to suffer there 

— O, it was just too farcial to see 

Them scratch Germania from their itineraries, 

And drop their tinkling dollars in my till. 

To catch their maundering, mediocre scribes. 

Insufferably insufflate with all-egotism, 

I'd have them to a literary "spread" 

To meet, perchance, a coachman of My Lord, 

Or get a nod from a butler of a Duke. 

And when their influential editors 

Sought British domain to disport themselves, 

We'd have them at a big pretentious banquet 

And sometimes listen to them for an hour 

With stoic fortitude, and cry "Hear, Hear," 

Till the garrulous gush-geysers did stop spouting; 

And they would go back home all cocked and primed. 

If ever war should come, to let the yell: 

"To Hell with the Hohenzollern and the Hapsburg." 

(But nothing of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha George; 

Or Congo-Leopold-Bourbon-Orleans Albert; 

Or Holstein-Oldenburg-Romanoff Nicholas; 

Or Cousin-to-the-Sun — and-Moon Mikado.) 

Oh, I have anglicized that Suckerdon 

Till they teach my History in all their schools. 

John Bull Seeks a Pretext. 

Thus subtly did I poison all the Planet 

With Warlordism and Militarism-gone-mad. 

But even then it seemed that no pretext 

Would ever come to warrant the attack. 

So, to untie the tangle, I bethought me: 

The only chance is Russia versus Austria, 

The neighbor, ally, friend, and blood of Germany, 

For Russia has designs on Austria, 

And can coach Servia, the Semi-Slav, 

Fell faction to foment about her border 

And thus create a psychological situation 

That will eventuate in some enormity 

That will force on Austria a punitive war; 

Then Russia will spring in, loudly proclaiming 

The Doctrine (utterly without foundation 

Quintessently ridiculous, abhorrent, 

Unrecognized by any government) 



134 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

That she is the Protector of all Slavs 

And must fight any one who doth fight them. 

So, she would war at once with Austria; 

This would force Germany to Austria's aid, 

This, France to Russia's — I will hem and haw, 

Look dreadfully perturbed a day or two, 

Then with great show of sorrowful reluctance 

Line up with France and Russia, though not bound 

By the alliance ecompact to do so. 

Then call my Eastern ally, Yellow Nippon. 

John Bull's Neutrality Excuse. 

But, what excuse? you ask. Trust me for that. 

Here's where I shine. An incident doth happen — 

Just listen: Belgium! Belgium is the key. 

Three quarters of a century ago 

I bound myself with Prussia to protect 

The neutrality of Belgium; — years before 

We saved her from Napoleon and France. 

Though Prussia signed it under real duress; 

Prussia alone, of all the present Empire; 

Aye, a quarter of a century before 

The other states became confederated. 

And for nearly four score years protecting Prussia 

Has kept his shield before his little neighbor. 

Alas I This little neighbor has a neighbor, 

A most enticing and bewitching one. 

Called by the world. Lascivious La Belle. 

Long since she has be-frivolled Belgium 

As a specked apple specks the one it touches. 

Her racial blood, too, runs in Albert's veins. 

Besides she doth beguile him with her charms, 

Her graces, winsome ways, and "wanton wiles" 

(She tells him he is far the handsomest 

And most accomplished ruler in all Europe 

Until he's stuffed and gorged with egotism) 

Until he loathes the plain, straight-spoken German. 

John Bull Plays on Albert. 

I follow up her blandishments with warning 
Against the War Lord who designs some day 
To seize his beautiful, dear Belgium. 
I tell him when the war doth come the German 
To throttle France in time to hurry back 
And thus repulse the Russian, must needs go 
The easiest, least fortified, lowland route — 
In other words, the one through Belgium; 
Thus desecrating his beloved domain, 
And to the dust humilliating him. 

The shafts went straightway to his pride-stuffed heart. 
So he bestirred himself. Ere long he started 
To fortifying — we helped him unobserved — 
So when the German on his way to France 
Should say: "My little neighbor, let me through" 
Albert should bristle up, refuse, fire on him, — 
And thus make Germany make war on him; 
Which would make me make war on Germany. 



ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO. IX'S 

The only possible hitch in all the program 
Was: when we got the German into France 
Could snail-paced Russia mobilize in time 
To crush his country ere he could get back; 
Thus forcing a precipitate retreat 
With France's and my mionions in pursuit? 
This to insure beyond all doubt, La Belle 
Did lend stupendous sums to Adam-zad 
Enabling him to strike with lightning speed. 

Events could now crowd to the culmination, 
(Oh, how we pulled the wool athwart the eyes 
Of all the world — yea, even over Wilhelm's!) 

Such was the train I laid. Ha, what a train! 

The awful match to light it struck at last, 

When Austria's Emperor's son and heir was slain, 

As a result of Servian intrigue. 

The world was staggered, stupefied, paralyzed. 

John Bull Rather Praises Wh^helm. 

I must concede that in the fearful flux 

Of ominous, o'erpowering events 

The Kaiser loomed in towering outline; 

Aye, rose to the Occasion's very crest. 

Rushing to soothe the aged Emperor's grief 

And moderate the transports of his wrath 

And counsel caution and diplomacy, 

He stayed the situation. Then, when Servia, 

At Russian (plus some other) instigation. 

Evaded outraged Austria's demands 

And forced her into w^ar, the prudent Kaiser 

Had her declare in most explicit terms 

The war should be but punitive, and not 

For territorial aggrandizement. 

Enter Russia as Per Program 

Then Russia, as per program, sprang straight in 

Asserting the awful Doctrine of the Slav, 

Remobilized her erstwhile mobilized 

And chafing army at the German border. 

When Wilhelm saw the big Bear's ugly shadow 

Fall full upon his cherished land, he acted . 

With instantaneous alacrity; 

Refused to recognize the new Slav Doctrine; 

Stood firm as steel for all his Ally's rights; 

Commanded Russia to demobilize 

Within two days; and likewise asked that France 

Express her intentions in event of war. 

Ere half the ultimatum limit set 

Expired the Russian crossed the German border; 

France sent a cowardly, evasive answer; — 

And Wilhelm straight declared war on them both; 

Though, in so doing, he did risk his all, 

His Empire, Property, Life to carry out 

His Compact of Alliance; brushed aside 

All quibbles and all close-coiled casuistry; 

Struck to the centre of the controversy, 

And left the issue to the God of Justice; 

— And earned the title : "Wilhelm the Great" (big fool.) 



136 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

Earl Grey. 

But let us go back briefly to myself. 

My diplomats got busy at the start. 
They knew that Austria must war on Servia. 
So, with a face full long and tragical, 
Asserting deep desire to save the peace. 
Earl Grey, long known, aye openly exploited 
As German — baiter, head of my very Party 
That constantly urged war on Germany — 
Oh, yes. Earl Grey! He surely was the man 
To bring sweet peace I 

He only blandly asked 
Heart-broken Austria to arbitrate 
It's own heir's murder with a packed tribunal 
— No doubt remembering how avidly 
I hastened to accept of Arbitration 
When urged, aye begged, to do so by the Boers. 



L 



A grosser, coarser, meaner, measlier insult 
Was never offered to a first-class power 
— But it would go all right with the nincompoops 
Who knew no history — nor little else. 

John Bull Has an Apparition. 

Of course, I knew that Austria must refuse 

Not only, once for all, to circumvent 

The dreadful Doctrine of the Slav (whereby 

She made us all her debtors), but even more 

To choke, before it spread and slew us all, 

The still more doubly damnable doctrine that 

Assassination is arbitrable. 

Horrors of hideous Hell! What hoists my hat! 

Ha, 'tis my lifting hair; for, by that token, 

Namely, the Arbitration — which but means 

The Condonation, aye, Encouragement, 

Yea Apotheosis — of Assassination; 

The sponsor of red-handed Regicide; 

The usherer in of Anarchy Incarnate, 

To every Government upon the earth; — 

What, of George, of Albert, Nicholas, the Mikado! 

Aye, get that Hellish doctrine once established 

And every throne on earth must needs adopt 

Our glorious national hymn: God Save the King! 

But I affected ominous apprehension 
Although, of course, I knew that Austria's 
Mere punitive war was well within her rights. 
I've sent a dozen such (not punitive merely 
But really purloining) expeditions. 
Even squeamish America sent one to China 
To punish the murder of its missionaries. 

The Dreadful Slav Doctrine. 

Again, to have accepted such an offer 
As a result of Russia's interference 
Would have made valid evermore the new 
Thrice dastard, deadly, aye, all-damning Doctrine 



ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO. 137 

That Russia has the right to interfere 
Whene'er a Slav or pretended-Slav complains, 
And thus eventually cower and crush the world. 
It was because of this appalling doctrine, 
Whose poison-cup might some day reach my lips 
If I should give assent or acquiescence 
By straightly lining up, that I held back, 
That I had to chafe and wait till Germany 
Spoke its intent to march through Belgium, 
And make neutrality my sole excuse. 

But Wilhelm acted like an imbecile: 

Willing to make extremist sacrifice 

To save me from a fight with my own blood, 

(The best corpuscles in my blood are German) 

He offered to surrender everything: 

Not if I'd join him in the awful conflict. 

But if I'd just engage to keep hands off. 

He promised to forego French Coast bombardment; 

Not to exact a single foot of soil; 

Or even a single colony from France; 

Aye, to completely cap the dumfounding climax, 

He would not even go through Belgium — 

The doubly dauntless and demented fool I 

He had me for a moment up a tree. 

But in a trice I was composed again 

For I remembered what a set of fools 

My cockneys were; how I could keep the offer 

Concealed from them until he double-quicked 

Through Belgium (too late to save his life) 

And the busted treaty would make them explode. 

That Neutrality Compact Again. 

True, it was a most asinine excuse 

But that's the sort for ignoramuses: 

In order words, ninety per cent of men. 

As if a compact for neutrality 

Could operate against the maker's self 

When he became involved in a war where it 

Would mean his dreadful maiming or his murder I 

In the fierce flux of big, complex events 

I've broken compacts of neutrality. 

By dozens and by scores, on all pretexts. 

I'll do it in this war where'er I feel 

The very least advantage may accrue. 

On any coast of Europe. Even so 

Japan will violate it frequently 

In Asia, and our uniform explanation: 

*"Twas done from military exigency 1" 

— Which was precisely Wilhelm's case with Belgium 1 

When war is on, like lightning things bound back 

Unto first principles; and self defense 

Becomes the only limit to one's rights. 

Technicalities. 

But how could blathering idiots understand 

An argument when the very world was rocking? 

I bode my time. Grey juggled, squirmed and twisted. 

Made sundry stalls to hypnotize the sap-heads, 



138 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

And piled up pyramids of technicalities. 
(Your standard English AfFectionist 
And average upstart American 
Doth love a precious technicality 
Above all joys of earth or hope of Heaven. 
He thinks, as he doth roll it on his tongue, 
It sounds so lawyer-like, so all-evincive 
Of educated, up-to-date acumen). 

John Bull Jumps on G. B. S. 

Of course, since France and Russia by themselves 

Would not have risked a war with Germany 

It goes without the saying that a word 

From me to Russia would have held her back, 

And saved the world this war-unparalleled, 

As charged by G. B. S.: Officious marplot. 

He's getting to be quite a National Nuisance; 

But then the captious freak has quite a vogue 

And so we are obliged to tolerate him. 

He thinks Ihat Shakespeare was a Liliput 

Beside his brobdingnagian self; essays 

To scold official England for not reading 

The liot act to Russia. If the stupe 

Had half a thimble-full of brains he'd know 

That Russia's conduct had been pre-arranged 

By me — that war, not peace, was what I wanted. 

Things Materialize as Per Program. 

And now asks Germany of Belgium, 

As a friend, whose only way to save his life 

From two who momently planned to murder him 

Was to throttle one in time to reach the other. 

To let him have permission to pass through. 

Albert refused point blank, aimed deadliest guns, 

And, as the Germans went their only way 

To save their country, fairly mowed them down, 

Thus forcing Germany to war on him. 

My time had come. I made the proper stall 

Of holy horror, sacred indignation 

At violation of a solemn treaty 

(I, I, who never in my History made 

A treaty that I didn't break instanter 

Whenever adverse interest supervened). 

And then declared I war on Germany! 

Then came the test of all my preparations. 

My literary litter let a yelp 

About the Belgian Monstrosity 

(Except our super-Shakespeare, G. B. S. 

And eke Sir Gonan — who went off half-cocked 

About those Belgian atrocities 

Back yonder in the noble Leopold's time 

And now's kind o' contraband and bottled up.) 

But we had with us ever ready Ruddy, 
Omniscient H. G. W. and all their ilk. 
Ruddy, the wondrous weather vane that twists 
Himself adjustingly to every wind; 
Who loathes correctness and consistency 
And covets only quaintish cleverness; 



ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO. 139 

Self-starting jumping-jack and jingle-juggler, 

Word-whirl er and phrase-prestidigitateur 

— The chief Claptrapper of the British Empire. 

And H. G. W. the Armipotent: 

That Wizard-Warrior who, at the outset, 

Arranged it all, partitioned Germany, 

Aye, fought the war and won it in a week 

— The week before it started — for, he knew 

That grafting Krupps made only worthless guns. 

(And in America a fitting pack 

Caught up the yelp and carried it along: 

Veracious Vance; our alimonious Elbert 

Foremost phrase-fakir and prize psuedo-pundit; 

And eke our almost oafishly fantastic 

Pretentious Dilettante narrow Norman, 

A cross between a literary Eunuch 

And an all-unfecund Art-Hermaphrodite. 

His quaint conception makes him side with France 

Because, he argues, France is naught but Norman. 

And so he slaughters Germans by the thousand, 

With Samson's justly celebrated weapon 

But he isn't quite so hard on Austria; 

Since Hapsburg's but another name for Hapgood.) 

As the Clique of claquers clattered with such clutter 

My Cockneys stared with pre-hypnotic twitchings 

And when, at length, their far-protruding eyes 

Slunk safely back to their deserted sockets 

They were doped just right to howl just as desired. 

At once to capture All-America, 

— That seething sty whereinto for a century 

Europe's off-scourings ceaselessly have poured 

Breeding at length Earth's rankest Suckerdom 

— I say, to capture All-America, 

With neat dispatch, I cut out the German cable; 

Then I alone could dish them any dope. 

John Bull Starts Slander Mills and Rapid 
Fire Lying-Machines. 

Knowing lies travel fast and do great good 

Ere they can be o'er taken and refuted 

I started up my Fabrication-factories 

And slimy Slander-Mills; unplugged the Slush-dams; 

Unlimbered all my rapid-fire Lying-Machines 

And hidden Innuendo-howitzers. 

They did the work. O! it doth seem a snap: 

So easy are those soft American suckers 

'Tis hardly sport to angle for and land them. 

The sole ambition of those bumptious boneheads 

Is to seem quite up-to-date on matters current, 

Intelligently informed on large events. 

So, each one grabbed a paper, drank my dope 

As gustfully as hungry pigs swill slop 

And soon was "posted," soon could spout and snort 

Anent the Germans' scouting Arbitration 

And "Bustin' " the neutrality of Belgium, 

And tell his unread neighbor all about it. 



140 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

Once hooked, pride of opinion holds them fast 
Till you could drag them over all the oceans. 
But if their capers made the Angels weep 
You should have seen the didoes that were cut 
By their puling publicists and pulpiteers. 
And, Oh, their asinine Editorialists! 
How each one grabbed his British Cyclopedia 
Mixed what it said w^ith his own crass obsessions 
And sauntered forth to educate the world. 

Other Arts. 

I long had used the proper processes 

To psychologically bring about 

The situation that we did desire; 

The agencies already spoken of 

And many more of similar import. 

Of which I've time to mention only two: 

My interosculating, submarine 

And subterranean conduits-of-the-coin; 

And, probably the shrewdest of them all. 

My plan to have my impecunious Lords 

And Earls and Dukes survey with care the market 

And marry all the multi-million-heiresses 

Who seemed e'en tolerably domesticable. 

Thus gained we dollars by the Hundred Millions, 

Besides cementing sacred National ties. 

Of course, when things got hot in Belgium, 

To neutralize the heinous Congo record 

And fire the heart of the American Boob just right, 

Aye, to forestall, at least, if not ofF-set 

The quite inevitable real thing 

When my black-and-tans and the Cossacks got to business, 

We worked the Atrocity racket double-time. 

The Mole St. Nicholas and Shanghai liars 

Were dwadling amateurs and tenderfeet 

Compared with my outfit; my Petrograd-er 

Will hold the universal palm forever. 

(Ah, Petrograd, thrice blessed Petrograd 

— Now listen, while I show my sense of humor — 

Just add a cute down-and-out-curve, a tail 

Appropriate, to that raucous world's head-letter 

And it spells Russia, namely, Retrograd). 

"Ketches the 'Spotes.' " 

You see we had to slay those multimillions 

And capture all of those jaw-breaking towns 

To get the sympathy of a certain class 

(One-fourth of All-America) and thus 

Make it unanimous against the Germans: 

That chivalrous class of "Sports" who feel contempt 

For mawkish sentiment and heroism 

Who merely always want to "pick the winner," 

W^ho, with abjectest ignorance of Germany, 

Recalling vaguely how the English History 

They smatteringly dozed over while at school 

Did boost "Our glorious Mother Country, England,'* 

And looking at the map and seeing how small 

The German allies look beside their foes 

Shout out: "They've got the Germans skinned a block 

So, I'm against 'em: Down with Militarism!" 



ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO. 141 



Of course, I knew the sober second thought 
Would come to some whom I had thus inveigled 
And the flimsy sham of breached Neutrality 
Would work no longer; but that matters not, 
As one played out I'd ring another in. 
And even if all others failed I still 
Had one supremely clinching stand-by left: 
The marrow-freezing cry of Militarism. 

Gullible America. 

That seems to specially gull Americans; 

I've always stuffed them with that potent guff: 

Pan Germanism, and Militarism-run-riot! 

Aye, gorged them to the eructation point 

With shuddering pictures of the fierce War Lord 

Who built a boat while I built only two. 

It was so touching how they'd indignate 

At what I said of broken promises, 

I, greatest promis-breaker of all Time : 

As witness Ancient Scotland, modern Ireland, 

My infant colonies of America, 

And India, Egypt, Persia, Turkey, China. 

As to preposterous Neutrality 

I've always broken it upon occasion. 

I'll violate it universally, 

In the present war, upon all neutral coasts. 

I'll violate rights of the United States, 

So will Japan, as exigencies arise, 

And do it with impunity — but that's 

Another story, of which more anon. 

Sometimes I almost wonder at the ease 

With which I "put 'em over" on Americans. 

When Grey, the well known head of my war party, 

Did offer unto Austria Arbitration 

And she refused, those American nincompoops 

Trembled with indignation, ne'er recalling 

How I had spurned it offered by the Boers. 

They only recollected my fool claim 

That I conquered them for civilization's sake; 

Whereas I now, with Slav, Jap, Turco, Sepoy, 

Do strive to crush, aye, even to dismember 

The most progressive, rapidly evolving, 

Home-loving, happy, homogeneous, 

Compactest, Civilization on the Globe. 

Oh, how they swill that "British Cousins" slush I 

For Germany is my closest blood relation 

(The best corpuscles in my blood are German) 

And in America there's thrice as much 

Of German blood as mine; because, all sprung 

From me are two-thirds German, to say nothing 

Of the whole-blood German millions and relations. 

Barnum, the greatest of Americans, 

Who knew them like a book, spoke but cold truth 

When he deposed : "They all like to be humbugged." 

John Bull's Strategy. 

And if I ever have to play the last 

And largest card I hold far up my sleeve 

Twill be to have America to pull 

My chestnuts — aye, myself out of the fire. 



142 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

Here is the strategy of my position : 

La Belle must bear the burden and the brunt; 

While the Bear and Lion rage — she foots the bills. 

(I'll bear her sorrows with condign composure). 

My fighting will be done upon her soil, 

And she will quarter, clothe, and feed my troops. 

(Russia she has already armed and rationed 

With copious loans — like water in a rat-hole). 

True, I will lose a quarter of a million 

Of my dear soldiers — but business 's business. 

Mere men are mortal — Dollars never die; 

Hence, when I fight for the Almighty Dollar 

(Please note the tense emotion in my voice) 

I fight for glorious Immortality! 

How's that for sacred Sentiment and Logic? 

They '11 all be cockney privates, anyhow. 

Ah — worth perhaps a thousand pence apiece, 

And I will get for every one of them 

Some Sixteen Thousand Dollars. How? 'Tis simple. 



John Bull Outs With It At Last. 

I go straight for the German Export Trade 

And wipe it from the seas within a week 

And capture it myself and then swing to it. 

Its staggering annual aggregate is Two Billions, 

And I'll prolong the war at least two years 

(That's what that shrewd "consent agreement" meant 

— Hence, also Kitchener's predicate of Three) 

That makes me four cool Billions to the good 

In any event. Even should we finally lose 

After two years, I still get those Four Billions. 

Four Billions! Oh, those dear Four Billion Dollars! 

Let me repeat it lest it be a dream: 

Four Billion Dollars, aye, Four Thousand Millions! 

Once more: Four Thousand Thousand Thousand DollarsI 

If Germany's defeated she can't come 

In hurtful competition e'er again. 

Poor, prostrate, bleeding France (excuse my tears) 

Cannot recuperate for decades more. 

America is always negligible 

For they are all such everlasting lobsters 

They wouldn't know real Commerce if they saw it, 

And if they did their demagogues would howl: 

Paternalism and Subsidy; and prevent 

The building of the needed merchant ships. 

Beautiful Billions. 

And so I keep those beautiful Four Billions 

And keep on adding to them every year. 

Aye, but you ask: "If Germany should win, 

If France no more can foot the bloody bills 

And flabby Russia thereupon collapses 

And they are carved up for the German table, 

And Billions of Indemnity demanded, 

Even your own hard-earned coin, the said Four Billions?" 



ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO. 



143 



Even then they cannot hurt your Uncle John; 
For when they say: "Shell down," with British pride 
I'll simply say (Thanks to my Ocean bull-dogs) : 
Just come across the channel, boys, and take it. 




..^. 









t»f,'^*- 



¥ 




From Simplicissisimus." 

And I will get for every one of them some 
Sixteen Thousand Dollars. 

John Bull's Last Card. 

But if the very worst comes to the worst. 
Aye, if the inconceivable should happen; 
If German genius and initiative 
Should means devise to ram and burst in twain 
My battle-ships with Subs and Zeppelin bombs. 
And smash my Parliament Hall and London Tower 
And freeze my kingdom's every Cockney's marrow- 
Then will I play that last card up my sleeve; 
And it will win; — I will appeal to Wilson! 
I'll keep the three-year limit well in mind. 
The sycophant Americans always 
Applaud whate'er a President says or does 
The first three years of his administration; 
But after that, his patronage all gone, 
The last thin pie-slice — then God pity himl 
So I'll appeal to Wilson in good time 
While Congress is subservient. 

John Bull Ridicules Page. 

I'll prime 
All pliant Page, his chief Ambassador: 
All potent Page, who owns a magazine 
(For Wilson dearly loves a magazine) 
— That fellow's not a single Page at all; 



144 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

He's a whole volume. We will banquet him 

And have him meet a score of our most seasoned 

And stoutest-stomached Dukes and Diplomats 

And have them, standing, drink deep to the toast: 

"The Great American Ambassador." 

And they will sit right down and hear him as 

He spouts great gobs of sentimental slush 

About "Our ties of blood and common language; 

Our all-affectionate cousins o'er the sea;" 

And as he slops about they'll cry: "Hearl Hear I" 

— Though it should last a century-seeming hour 

They'll tough it through — and then go out and retch. 

John Bull Lampoons Daniels and Bryan. 

Then there is that heroic soul, Seeph Dan'ls, 

(That's what they call him down where he was raised), 

I had a hero once who polished up 

So carefully the handles, that, at length, 

He became the "Ruler of the Queen's Navee." 

But from my hero Sephus differs thusly: 

Seeph never even polished handles up. 

To use an Americanism: He hasn't sense 

Enough to get out of a shower of rain, 

Or brains enough to tote tripe to a bear. — 

(Wherein he differs very much from me; 

For I've been toting it for several years). 

Now Sephus is the satelite, understudy, 

And second-fiddle to the Calliope 

And detonating megaphone combined 

Who uses his own voice to thrill himself. 

I love to think of Dub yer Jennings: how 

In '96 he used up the Dictionary 

Lambasting me for murdering dear Free Silver, 

And a decade later wrote how cruelly 

By "Legalized pillage" I had pauperized India. 

But since his daughter's wed an English Cap'n 

There's nothing quite too English for him now. 

To cite a recent case: when Guv'ner Goethals, 

(Swelled almost unto bursting just because 

He'd dug a caving ditch in Panama), 

Thinking to make a bally grand-stand play, 

Demanded war-ships sent to Panama 

To curb my ventures in his old Canal Zone, 

The addled Sephus straightly ran to Dub Yer. 

"What now, Josephus? Ah, a telegram." 

Impressively the Oracle did eye it. 

And thus: "Who dares be thus pre-empt 'ry. Sir? 

What, Go-t' hell! No. It can't be that— Go-e-thals? 

(Methinks I've seen some name like that before) 

Let me bethink me — Go-e-thals, ah, Goethals I 

— I thought he'd got ii all already Sephus; 

But he wants still more." Seeph swooned in ecstasy; 

The Great One's brow relaxed, his chest expanded; 

His eyes shot glee-darts, then rolled in "fine frenzy." 

That long-range 12-inch smile-en-stereotype, 

The smile that won't come off even when he sleeps, 

Springing to place again, o'erwrapped each ear 

Disclosing all the stalagmites and stalactites. 

Then, with benignant ponderosity: 



f 



ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO. 1 r> 

"You haven't shown it yet to Woody, eh?" 

(They call him that because he thinks it sounds 

So much like Jackson, who was called *'01d Hickory".) 

"Well, well, it may be best to wait awhile 

Until the Guv'ner tells us why he wants 'em." 

And so they waited on until the Guv'ner 

Repeated his demand for ships instanter. 

Again they wondered, for a day or so, 

If Uncle Sam had any ships of w^ar; — 

And finally decided to rig up 

Some sort of hulk provided 'twas seaworthy. 

Of course, by now I "had done flew the coop" — 

To use a typical Americanism. 

And Dub yer has a wondrous legal mind. 

Even while he specialized on declamation, 

He studied Law on the side, aye, practiced it. 

Until he almost learned to write a will. 

So it should not cause wonder when he holds 

One of "these here hydro-aeroplanes" 

Can in no sense be classed a vessel of war. 

"Prithee, because," quoth he, "a vessel floats 

Upon the water, whereas these here things 

Not only float but also fly as well." 

Such reasoning stamps him easily the chief 

Of all Hydro-aero-Cephalouses. 

He is the Chief of all Chop-logic-ers. 

He tells the hyphenated-Americans 

(And uses only some Six Thousand words) 

We are absolutely, and tee-totally. 

Aye, thrice implicitly and super-strictly. 

Wax-tightly, and hermetically, Neutral 

And when we're often otherwise, 'tis because 

We're scared; for England has the bigger navy. 

And when she takes our goods or spits upon us 

We up and indignate and file a protest 

As fiercely, almost, as a courted damsel. 

We've probably already filed a score. 

And why we censor wireless dispatches 

Is because they can't be cut; therefore we cut 'em. 

And why de do not censor cablegrams 

Is: they are cuttable; hence, we don't cut 'em. 

(The German cable got cut at the start 

By England, and has never been uncutted.) 

John Bull Caricatures W^ilson. 

And then I'll have my faithful scribblers all 

To work on Wilson; never let him rest; 

Bombard him ceaselessly with pointed pamphlets: 

All of my plastic press, and pulpiteers, 

AH of my correspondents-of-the-coin. 

To fulminate their flatulent platitudes 

And flood them down upon his hapless head; 

Proving that Intervention, it alone 

Can bring us praeter-perfect, permanent peace. 

I'll fill him full of soap-suds on the sly; 

Promise to get for him the prize-Nobel 

Urging — Now, please don't laugh, for 'tis no joke — 

That noble Intervention on his part 

When added to his matchless Mexican record 

Will land it for him, if it only be 

But championed by my influential self. 



146 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

0, quit that laughing; it will work with Wilson. 
I did, myself, some right uproarious laughing 
At what I then erroneously did term 
The Mexican fiasco. Now I see 
The error of my way. 

That episode 
Did set all Europe all a-roar with laughter; 
Convulsed the diplomats with cachinnation; 
— Ten thousand healthy English fits were flung. 
Whene'er I had the blues or wished to whet 
My appetite for breakfast I let out 
My belt a notch or two, and thus rehearsed: 
Said Huilson — Note my quaint and subtle humor — 
To Huerta: "Please, sir, won't you stop that racket?" 
Said Huerta unto Huilson: "Aye, most gladly 
I can and will if you'll but recognize me." 
Said Huilson unto Huerta: "Pish — tut, tut! 
I shall not do it, for you don't exist." 
"I don't?" said Huerta — "Maybe so; we'll see." 
So, in due season did the troops of Huerta 
(Who didn't exist) arrest the troops of Huilson. 
Then Huerta (who did not exist) apologized, 
But not enough. Said Huilson: "S'loot my flagl" 
Said Huerta (he who never did exist) : 
"I've apologized enough for a Non-existent 
— Ter Hell with yer blamed old rag!" Huilson got riled 
And 'lowed: "I'll shoot the existence out of you I" 
Said Huerta (who did not exist) to Huilson: 

"Go to it, blunderbuss — shoot and be D!" 

Then Huilson launched his sailors and his soldiers 

At Huerta ( who did not exist) — and see! 

With true blue-stocking unction and strict logic, 

Before they fire, discriminating Huilson 

Bawls to the world: "Now witness: I don't fight 

Dear Mexico, or Mexicans — not a soul 

But ruling Huerta (and he don't exist) 

And I shall slay no Mexicans — only half, ^ 

The Huerta half, (and they do not exist) 

And thereupon a bit of blood was let; 

And dear old Granny Huilson's stomach heaved 

And his feet got cold; — but his lucky star prevailed; 

For, thereupon up-piped three pickanninnies 

From somewhere down in South America 

Who said: "Pray let us mediate, make peace 

Between you and that awful bluff"er, Huerta, 

(Who don't exist)." Then Huilson cried: "Eureka!" 

And stopped the war. And so he rubs his hands 

Incessantly and applauds his wizardry, 

And thinks how he will land the prize-Nobel, 

Which beats all hollow Andy's Teachers' Pension. 

Nor is he worried with the precedent 

Whereby, whene'er a foreign question 'rises. 

Just any little Pickaninnydom 

In Central or in South America 

Can fairly claim the right to intervene. 

Will Attend to America Later. 

Again, you see, a few such incidents 

Will take the starch out of his Countrymen 



r 



ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO. 



147 



And breed a race of cowards. Their Press and Pulpit, 

Already subsidized by "Canny Andy," 

And publicists will all howl Militarism, 

Urge ceasing all defensive Preparations 

Aye, even advocate Disarmament, 

The surest route to speedy suicide. 

And kept them stuffed with: "Peace at any price/' 

AS THEY ACTUALLY SEE IT DOWN THERE. 




From Daris de Pernambuco," (Rio de Janeiro.) 



And they will prosper and wax fat and flabby 

Until full ripe for plucking — then, Oh! then, 

— But mum's the word — I'll burst if I don't say it- 

ril take them in out of the wet. Behold 

How, next to Canada, 'twill belly out 

In most symmetrical out-line the kite 

Whose tropic tail from Mexico to the Horn 

I'll give unto Japan, my yellow ally. 

(Heat favors his complexion, anyhow 

And is always necessary for expansion). 



148 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



lii\ll 







This wondrous Mexic' episode I mention 
Simply to show how changing interest 
Doth justly change our views; also to show 
How in such cases, what was once a joke 
Can be made useful as a serious plea; 
As, when I utilize the incident 
To boost the Wilson claim to the prize-Nobel. 
I mention it, though, mainly to make profert 
Of the weird workings of the Wilson mind. 

John Bull Piles Insults on Wilson. 

Oh, how I love a mind like that, when it 

Is prepossessed and squints my way! Ah, what 

A quaint psychology and temperament! 

Put once a central thought into that brain 

And all things else become subordinate. 



ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO. 149 

To use a simple little illustration : 

He's well imbued with the great central thought 

Of England's super-eminence, and, hence, 

Her sacred right to anything she wants — 

He taught it in his school with streaming eyes; 

Once at a banquet he did boast that he 

Did read each week the Saturday Review 

And revel in its strictures of America. 

And so, you see, when England and Japan 

Do, in the present war, take liberties 

That any other country would resent, 

Not merely violating all neutralities 

But seizing ships and rifling them — always, 

Though promising to settle up some day, 

The dear, delightful, dapper old perfessor 

Will view it all as mere perfunctory 

Exchange of commonplace civilities. 

Aye, though he make the Turk apologize 

For shots aimed but to warn well out of danger 

Yet I might put a shot clean through and through 

And he would call it a "common incident" 

And laugh about at it as a pleasantry. 

Of course, you see, if even wilfully 

And not from mere obsession he assisted 

He couldn't do it as an outright ally; 

But one "beneath the bush" is just as good; 

For always bear in mind that things that equal 

The same thing are quite equal to each other. 

From time to time he'll make a well-staged stall 

To keep his German voting-subjects fooled, 

Pretend to bristle up and indignate 

And make them think he's calling me to task 

And at him I will wink the other eye. 

Tell him I'll think it over carefully; 

If he insists on answer, rig just any 

Old thing and let it go at that; perhaps 

Deign to concede: "If that's not satisfactory 

We'll take the matter up again some day." 

The main thing anyhow is those munitions 

Those rifles for the Russians, aye those dum-dums 

With which to sqush the meat of the barbarous Germans. 

And if some sop must still be dangled out 
To pacify the German chumps, why Wilson 
Can interdict the dum-dums, but permit 
The shipment of the rifles and explosives. 
What boots it how a German's killed, provided 
He's killed plumb dead; for, if he's only wounded 
He mends so fast that they will patch him up 
And at the front they'll have him in a fortnight. 
The vast advantage of the glorious dum-dnm 
Is that it bursts and squshes up the meat 
Until it can't be patched back up again. 

Still better to illustrate: I protested 

Against exempting his own ships from toll. 

His conscience told him straightway 'twas his Duty 

To urge repeal, and thus be true to Treaty; 

Flouting the equitable principle. 

Of universal application, that 

No one is bound by any agent's act 

To give vast value for no meet return, 



150 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

And, above all, under no circumstance, 

If the hypnotized agent act a blooming jackass — 

It is to laugh! ha, ha! Ho, ho! Hay, Hay! 

But even farther did his logic go: 

In the very platform of his promises 

On which he stood and offered for election — 

His solemn covenant, aye, his "Sacred Treaty" 

With all the voters who elected him, 

'Twas writ: American ships must be exempt." 

That were to ordinary minds a clincher. 

— But not with his. The platform had a clause 

Inveighing in turgid, formal general terms 

Against the principle of Subsidy; 

So he advanced the far-fetched proposition 

That Exemption sorter sounded kinder like Subsidy; 

Ignoring, even if true, the well known maxim 

That, always, any specified exception 

Prevails against an abstract generalization. 

(And they do say he studied, aye, taught, Law.) 

Great God! I shudder every time I think 
What a close call 1 had. For, if this war 
Had come before he forced Repeal on Congress 
He couldn't have put it over, and alas! 
It would have meant American merchant ships 
To cut into those glorious Four Billions. 

An Incongruous Bunch. 

Kow, such a mind with such a central thought 

Could see no incrongruity at all 

In the claim that Peace is all-impossible 

Unless the "Allies" be made its custodians. 

He'd never recollect his History: 

How always I've called France "The Decadent Nation;" 

And she called me "Perfidious Albion;" 

And Russia called Japan "The Yellow Devil;" 

And all called Russia "Treacherous Adam-zad." 

— And all were right, each told the naked truth! 

When I think "Yorktown" France thinks "Waterloo"— 

And both think "Hell," as ghosts of Balaklava 

Make shrieking chorus with those of Port Arthur! 

Our motto ought to be, beyond a doubt: 

We hate each other — but hate Germany more. 

I say, Oh, how I love a mind like that! 
So quite dependable when once set right. 
So bendable, resilient, rubber-like. 
And infinitely adjustable to occasion! 

Now, one more illustration, just to prove 

The point elaborated and to show 

My chiefest claim upon his Intervention. 

Suppose that he should wish for re-election; 

He'll think the destiny of the Universe 

Depends upon it, making it his duty 

To win, e'en though to win involved the breach 

Of every puritanic principle 

He ever ostentatiously professed; 

Aye, he'll be even duly reconciled 

To Wall Street and J. P., my faithful "Allies," 

And eat soup out of the same spoon with them. 



ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO. 



151 



So, when I put it up to him, 'twill go. 

He'll call his Congress into Extra Session, 

His Congress whom he taught long, long ago, 

To docilely eat sugar from his hands; 

And hie him to the Capitol and read 

To them exactly what they have to do; 

Aye, thump the desk if it be necessary. 

Enunciate each word emphatically, 

Yea, even clamp his teeth, and thrust out that 

Low-hung, tenacious, domineering chin — 

Which spells: "I am infallible — come across 

Or else a scrap will start to last all Time 

With a goodly pinch of Eternity thrown in." 

And they'll come across, — You bet your bottom dollar. 

And intervene, and save my sacred Billions. 




(THE MASK TORN OFF) 



Hold, hoary hypocrite; Enough, Enough 1 

You Incarnation of Audacity, 

You've overstepped the bounds at last, till all 

Can see you in the stript stark nakedness 

Of your infernal machinations when 

You try to prove: they best preserve the peace 

Who always have its murder in their hearts. 

You've altogether underestimated 

The genius and the valor of the German 

Embarking on a war fore-doomed to failure, 

And, as you see the dread alternative, 

You over-estimate your "Pull" with Wilson 

And those whose votes he has to reckon with. 



152 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

Your hollow cry of "Guardians of the Peace" 
Cannot avail you more. A simpleton 
Can see the monstrous travesty you make. 

(PEACE PICTURES) 

What a composite photograph of Peace 1 

Your smirking mug, the animalistic Slav, 

The fantastic Frenchman and the slant-eyed Jap I 

And to the left, in appropriate relief, 

A villainously visaged Senegalese 

And to the right a saturnine Sepoy's phiz! 

All-redolent of weirdest reminiscence 

Of the Poet's dream of "Wild Mahratta Battle," 

All-a-reek with the ooze of the "Black Hole of Calcutta." 

""Oh, bloodiest picture in the book of Time I" 

Another picture: murdered Peace doth lie 

All-mutilated in an open grave. 

See, at the North Star end, an ungainly, huge, 

Carnivorous, ghastly, grizzled, ghoulish form. 

The synonym of Treachery, Adam-zad; 

At the other end a gaunt but graceful Tigress 

Famished with fighting for two long lost cubs 

And fairly frenzied with fresh-tasted blood; 

Upon the Sun-rise side, a yellow figure 

Strides, in a restiveness ineffable. 

The hungering Hyena of the East 

Whose future growth lies over white men's graves; 

At the Sun-down side a cunning sun-down form 

— Though masquerading in a Lion's skin, 

A cross between a Jackal and a Fox — ; 

And brazenly a-perch each bristling back 

Doth squat a stinking, red-beaked Carrion Crow 

Bedaubed with white-wash splotches: "Dove of Peace.' 

Let us entitle this inspiring picture 

The "Peace Quartette: In Concert of the Nations." 

Now see! these Guardians of the grave of Peace 

Clasp claws, rear on their haunches, turkey-trot, 

And yowl; their ether-ripping discords inter-rasp 

In quadralingually blood-curdling chorus 

With the vomit-fetching raucous, raw refrain: 

"God's holy Peace-guards, we: — four souls with but 

A single thought, four hearts that beat as one." 

(ENGLAND'S DOOM) 

Ah, England, foulest whited sepulchre. 

With dead men's bones and all uncleanness filled. 

The hour of Retribution draweth nigh. 

You have committed every calendered crime 

And myriads of unique ones of your own: 

Scotland, America, Ireland, the Boers; 

O'er all the oceans and upon all lands; 

And you survived them every one. Even now 

Though you war against your very flesh and blood 

(The best corpuscles in your blood are German) 

You might survive, (just as you did survive 

The war against your American colonies) 

If butchery of your blood were all. But, oh, 

The damning fact stands out that in so fighting 



ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO. 



153 



Ycu fight against the whole white Race; you fight 

To aggrandize the Slav and Jap and crush 

The Teuton, aye to Color Civilization 

To make it yellow-streaked if not yellow I 

Piping of Peace and Anti-Militarism, 

You fight to put the Slav and Jap on top, 

And usher in eternal Militarism; 

Aye, Yellow or Yellow-streaked Militarism, 

Upon the Planet for a Thousand years, 

Or till the white race is obliterated. 




Dd 



C^ 



John Bull on the YeWow Dragon. 
From "Der Wahre Jacob." 



So; you fight against the Law of Evolution 
Hence, against Nature, hence 'gainst Nature's God; 
And when you tackle that you die. It is 
The national "Unpardonable Sin." 

In your defeat your Colonies will see 

How they've been hypnotized; how impotent 

You are for their long-boasted best protection, 

And they will leave you, even as the rats 

A sinking ship. Your once proud, far-flung Empire 

Is passing down the shadow to its death. 

Your doom-bell tolls. Your name is Ichabod. 

God relegates you to Belshazzar's fate. 

His mene tekel branded on your brow. 

You've set the world on fire and your mad self 

Will be the first to shrivel in the flames. 



GERMANY 

Great Fatherland! Father of Martin Luther, 
Hence, father of the Protestant Religion. 
Land of colossal Kant, foremost polemic 
Philosopher of Transcendentalism. 



154 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

The land of Schiller and of glorious Goethe, 
Since all your children love their Fatherland 
The foremost Poet of Philosophy. 



Land of immortal Art and Master-Music: 

Of Holbein, Durer, Cornelius, Kaulbach, Menzel, 

Of Vischer, Syrlin, Rietschel, Ranch, Kiss, Begas; 

Of Schubert, Schumann, Strauss, Brahms, Mendelssohn, 

Bach, Handel, Mozart, Wagner, Beethoven. 

The center of the scientific world: 

Schwann, Schleiden, Leibnitz, Helmholz, Bunsen, Kircholl, 

Koch, Liebig, Roentgen, Ostwald, Virchow, Haeckel. 

The land of Scientific P2ducation! 
The land of Scientific Agriculture I 
The land of Scientific Manufacture! 
Of Scientific, world-engirdling Commerce I 

The land of Universal Education, 
Of compulsory, progressive education; 
Land of the everlasting Kindergarten; 
Land of the greatest Universities 
The modern Mecca of post-graduates. 
Land of co-ordinated faculties 
For cultivating body, mind, and soul; 
Of Culture and Simplicity combined. 

Land with the fundamental germs of progress 
Deep-planted and intensely cultivated. 
Hence, land of the Instinct of Self-preservation 
And Genius to direct that Instinct aright; 



(How lightning quick that Instinct crystalized; 
How all discordant factions, when they saw 
The Big Bear's shadow strike the Fatherland, 
Sank minor differences in a common grave 
Shook hands across it, one vast unit stood I) 



Thus, land of most effective preparation : 
The greatest siege-guns, greatest submarines. 
The mightiest monsters of the upper air; 
And most efficient men to handle them. 
Since all your children love their Fatherland 
They'll fight for it whenever called. 
Hence, land of the most heroic warriors 



This planet ever saw. They've made the name 

German synonymous with Heroism— 

Not blind, fanatic, aimless, animal courage 

But deliberate, intelligent, scientific 

Eternal Consecration unto Death, 

On earth, in air, afloat or beneath the wave, 

From the ?\^orth See sheer to Tsingtau — the — Immortal 

Where that beleaguered llittle garrison 

Mocked Nippon, Russia, England, all combined. 



ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO. 155 

Your hour of trial, Fatherland, has come, 

Your hour of trial and of test to prove 

Superiority, Supremacy 1 ^ 

To prove that magic trade-mark: "Made in Germany," 

As the guarantee of excellence applies 

Not merely to materials — but men! 

Men of the greatest homogeneous types: 

The greatest Gentile and the greatest Jew; 

And last, and best, the greatest Womanhood I 

Who must stay at home and sufTer all in silence. 

Oh, German Womanhood, what can we say 

To bring a balsam to your bleeding heart; 

How meetly spread our homage at your shrine I 

Let it suffice to say we sympathize 

And sorrow. Let this be your strengthening solace. 

That all great gains are worth great sacrifices. 

When Victory doth come, 0, German women, 

Your country will remember you. Your Sisters, 

All who have learned to "Suffer and be strong" 

Do dedicate to you their tenderest heart-throbs. 

Your glory will be sung in future years. 

And men learn better of your peerless traits 

That show the superiority of the cells 

That go to make your bodies, minds, and souls. 

Long have men known most of the hero's heroism 

Is sucked from an heroic mother's breast. 

'Tis but the natural growth of those ideals 

With which you thrilled their embryonic cells 

That now materialize and blossom forth 

In deeds of daring and in feats of genius — 

'Tis you have made the mighty Fatherland 

Earth's greatest evolutionary exponent. 

The stored-up virtue of the generations 

Of Righteous Living, strict Conformity 

To Nature's Laws, which spells Morality, 

Has been by straight Heredity transmitted 

Unto your offspring. From your reservoir 

Of such long-accumulated righteousness 

Has sprung the German Empire's master-trait 

That Adaptation to Environment 

Which makes it master everything it touches. 

O, Womanhood of Germany, the sorest 

Most poignant, most soul-stabbing test of all 

Is that so many of your heroes must 

Fall victims not to chivalrous opponents 

But to the brutal-hearted, bestial Slav, 

The Sepoy, Turcoman, the Senegalese. 

Aye, in that carnaged, gory. Western sphere 

Your valorous sons are straight-confronted by 

The most monumental mess of motliness 

In man-shape e'er assembled on this planet 

A-squat about a heaving hell's war-cauldron. 

The most horrid, hetrogeneous, hybrid, horde 

Of Asian, African, Archipelagan hellions 1 

A single sturdy German laborer. 

Become a soldier at his country's call, 

[s worth Ten Thousand such brute black-and-tans. 



156 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



Let God in heaven look down upon this scene: 

A gentle maiden in sweet solitude 

Doth nightly wait beside the "Rolling Danube" 

"Under the Linden" for her soldier boy 

Who, on his furlough, will make her his bride. 

She'll never see him more, his soul went out 

When a lurking Sepoy's bullet pierced his brain. 

A bride beyond the "Blue Alsatian Mountains" 

Hums tender lullabies that she shall croon 

Unto her baby after it is born, 

Her fervent theme: her noble warrior 

Who sought the colors at his Country's call; 

Her only thought how she will welcome him 

And baby coo at him when he comes home — 

He never will come home; while he held back 

A horde of charging hellions at the Marne 

A snakish Turco sneaked behind his back 

And with curved knife whacked off the hero's head. 




An aged, patient widow with her eyes 

Turned trustingly to heaven, night after night 

Doth keep her lonely "Watch Upon the Rhine" 

And pray to God to keep her darling son, 

Her only child, and source of livelihood. 

Within the hollow of His hand and hold 

Him harmless through the dark and bloody days 

Till she can clasp him in her arms again. 

She'll never clasp him more, — his vulture-picked bones, 

Bleaching and scattered, serve to monument 

The spot where, as he leapt the blazing breastworks, 

The fire of Fatherland flashing from his eye, 

His mother's sacred name upon his lips, 

A Senegalese spear disemboweled him! 



ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO. 157 

Great God in Heaven! Shame, shame, upon the world! 

Shame on the Race! Shame on America! 

Shame, everlasting shame upon us cowards 

Who sympathize, yet sit supinely still! 

Why don't the very Angels sweep from heaven 

With flaming swords and drive back on their icebergs 

The vandal myriads of a snow-cursed land; 

Drive that agglomeration of the South, 

The devil-infested swine, into the sea! 

Why don't the thunderbolts of all-heaven hurtle, 

One lightning-avalanche, upon their heads! 

Oh, how can God Almighty view, unmoved, 

This culminating and climacteric crime 

Of all the reeking crime-stained centuries? 

Why does He not envelope us in all 

The hydro-oxygen vapor of the Universe, 

Condense it meetly, and then flood it down 

And in an instant drown this heinous world, 

Not covetous robbers merely, but us cowards 

Who live and yet permit the enormity! , 

Aye, drown this dastard planet, place its orbit 

An infinite distance farther from the sun. 

And freeze it hard forever, on to roll 

Through space, a warning to all other worlds. 

The coruscating Shudder-ball of the Universe! 

But patience; let us cease such imprecation. 

Oh, glorious Fatherland, you need them not. 

The polyglot aggregate of the incantations 

Of all your piebald, Pharisaical foes 

Are nought with God. No, they cannot cajole 

Or fool or flatter Him. They cannot swerve 

Him from His course; for. He hath made a law 

Which guarantees your certainty of success. 

The all-pervading, fundamental law 

On which the Universe itself doth rest. 

And writ it on the rocks and stars and suns, 

And it doth read: THE FITTEST SHALL SURVIVE. 



WILHELM 

God-speed, palaestric Teuton paladin! 
Atlantean spirit all-unshrinking from 
The heaviest load an Earthman ever bore: 
The heaviest feature of that load the fact 
That, of the noble souls that bless the Earth, 
Thou art, of all, the most misrepresented. 
The most maligned, and most misunderstood. 

But now thy towering figure doth disclose 
Thy heroic contour in its true proportions 
As it stands out at ease with the Immortals 
In luminous silhouette amid the stars. 

Prehensile problem-grappler. Versatile 
And verile Producer in the World of Work; 
Thy days replete with earnest occupation 
Thy nights, with lucubration long drawn out, 
While all the other occupants of thrones 
Were lolling in luxurious inanition. 



158 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

For full a quarter of a century 

Thou wert the world's supremest Prince of Peace: 

Didst pass in peace the zenith of thy days 

And yearn for it to crown thy declining years. 

— And yet they called thee War Lord all the while. 

War Lord; because thou never hadst a war 

While these peace-prating "Allies" shook the planet 

With everlasting war on top of war, 

— When aught else failed e'en warring with each other. 

War Lord, because thou knew'st thy next door neighbors 

Forever bore thy murder in their hearts 

And, with the Instinct of Self-Preservation, 

Prepared to make thy fruitful land so strong 

And well equipped they would not dare attack it, 

Thus giving Germany her chance to grow; 

Safe-guarding thus thine own and Europe's peace. 

War Lord, because, forsooth, you built a boat 
While your quadripartite enemies built six; 
War Lord, because you cleared the paths of Peace; 
War Lord, because you aided Agriculture; 
Built humming mills and prosperous factories; 
And vastly swelled the Commerce of the World. 
War Lord, because you fostered Education 
Beyond all others; patronized High Art; 
And made a science of promoting Science. 

War Lord, they slanderously called you then; 

— But truly now you are the Lord of War : 

Caesar, Leonidas, Napoleon, 

And Greater Frederick all rolled in one. 

Your fame upon the awful field of War 

Will last as long as History itself; 

For, all your arms accomplish, you prepared. 

But, ah! your noblest monument was made 

Before the war; when any smaller soul 

Would have shrunk back and temporized at least. 

Soul of immaculate, immortal honor! 

You kept your sacred compact of Alliance, 

Though, in so doing, you did seem to cast 

Unto the winds your hopes, your life, your all! 

A braver deed no mortal ever did 

Or nobler, and ne'er will. 

The self-same instant 
You saw the figure of the big W^hite Bear 
Loom at your border, quick as lightning-flash 
Your right hand clutched his throat, the while your left 
Throttled the Tigress crouching for her spring. 
And you have ne'er let go that death-clutch grim 
Though your own British kin do hack your arms 
Until the blood spurts at the naked bone. 
And skulking Nippon fusillades from the rear. 

Aye, even when England lined against her blood 

And et tii Brute leapt unto your lips, 

It only made the grim determination 

Spring stronger in your adamantine heart. 

Looming above the clouds in majesty 

You said: "My obligations all discharged 

To Ally, Country, Teuton Race, and God, — 

I go to battle with my conscience clear!" 



ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO. 159 

Yea, in responding to your Ally's call 

As she was threatened by the big White Bear 

Your war became a doubly Holy War. 

Not merely 'gainst red-handed Regicide 

And Anarchy Incarnate is your stand; 

Not merely 'gainst the right to quit an Ally; 

Not merely 'gainst the damnable New Doctrine 

Of Russia's right to always interfere; 

But lastly, and supremely, you do stand 

For your own People's final Preservation; 

And thus, for Civilization, Evolution, 

Survival of the fittest Teuton Species 

Against the all-inferior Slav and Jap. 

You struggle to uphold the one dynamic 

And fundamental law that underlies 

The whole organic Universe: the right 

To live, grow, and, if fittest, to survive; 

Hence, Nature is your Ally, and, hence, God; 

Hence, you will win. 

Though dark now, Stygian dark 
Doth seem your future as you face such odds. 
In this unholiest, most accursed War, 
Thou can'st look nowhere upon God's green Earth 
For rest or reinforcements. 

But, cheer up! 
Fight on, heroic Wllhelm! Lion-heart 
That never faltered yet and never shall! 
You've proved a German equal to four Slavs, 
If normal, and to two devodkaized. 
So, little need you fear from that fell surce. 
And in the South where mongrel millions throng 
Thinking to win by numbers, if need be 
Find strongest vantage ground — and then out-last them. 
Earn for yourself the soubriquet unique: 
The Great Out-Laster. Trust your noble people 
To make all necessary sacrifices. 

The miscellaneous mixture of your foes 

Bears all the ultimate elements of decay. 

Those sun-cursed African and Asian hordes 

And sallow Frenchmen, absent from absinthe, 

Are valuable when the bugles bray 

And cheers resound to greet the flying flags; 

But when they settle down to dull routine 

When Europe's Winter chills their Tropic blood 

And indolence enforced enervates all. 

Familiarity will breed contempt 

And intimacy change to Race-antipathy. 

The sudorific stenches that exude 

From their vari-colored, vari-odored hides 

Will goad to madness all the whites in nose-shot. 

Aye, when proximity communicates 

All their respective, various, virulent germs 

Of body, mind, and soul, each to the other 

And the wild jabber of their polyglot brogues 

Grate on each other's racked and quivering nerves 

— Then Babel will be back! confusion vast 

And unrestrained reign in the ''Allies" ranks; 

Deterioration will set in; and then 

Demoralization; then Disintegration. 



160 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

Yes! You will ultimately win, O, Wilhelml 

Your enemies out-number you three fold, 

Rut your one Ally, God, insures success. 

And when you win, take to the uttermost 

The full fruition of your victory. 

Permit no dickering. Dictate the terms 

With your victorious armies in the field. 

Your enemies, hysterically flushed 

With expectation of an easy triumph 

And with fictitious tidings from the field 

In hectic tones declared that they would crush 

Your splendid, pains-built Empire like an eggshell. 





r^ 



\^ f';^ 






Nineteen years ago the Kaiser sketched this allegoiical picture (completed in oils by Knackfuss) 
tj'pifying the stand of the European nations ngainst tlie "Yellow Peril." 

Aye, your own Rritish kin have so proclaimed; 

The Premier of their psuedo-statesmen said: 

Your Empire should be crushed, aye, and dismembered. 

Thank God! they let their deep heart-secret out! 

Under the logic of their own expressed 

Heart-purpose and intense, soul-set design 

Mete out to them what they proposed for you! 

Hold what you have; all that you capture keep. 

Keep all of Upper France and Warmer Russia. 

Say to Apostate Italy: "Farewell;" 

And to Japan whose path of future growth 

Lies only through the white man's fresh-made grave-yards: 

"You stand revealed, Reware. We meet again. 

I drew your picture nineteen years ago, 

And now the whole world sees I drew it right." 

And clip the fore-claws and the cloven hoof 

Of the monstrous Rritish brute — and keep them clipped. 



ENGLAND'S OWN INFERNO. 161 

Accept no protestations from your foes: 

Trust not an aggregate whose component parts 

Have all in time proved treachery on each other. 

Then o'er the ocean to America 

Stretch forth the glad right hand of fellowship 

And make with her a solemn covenant 

To keep the Law and Order of the Globe, 

To evermore preserve the Planet's Peace. 

And preserve forever white supremacy. 

Fight on, Great Emperor, fight on, fight on! 

Till France can foot the bills of blood no longer, 

And the Slav-parasite sloughs off perforce. 

Aye, make their moratoria run forever. 

Fight till thou bankrupt'st Britain's treasury: 

So mayst thou touch through her depleted coffers 

At last her even more depleted conscience. 

Fight on, fight on, until the British people 

Shall, in their nightly dreams, see all the hosts 

Of all Heaven's Angels ranged 'round God himself, 

Waving down truce-flags from the great White Throne I 

Fight, till, in those intriguing Statesmen's eyes, 

Each inch of sky becomes an ominous frown 

As, on the background, they behold these faces: 

Pitt, Gladstone, LaFayette, and Washington; 

Bruce, Wallace, Scottish Mary, Joan, Emmet; 

All the butchered Boers and Americans tomahawked — 

Looking down on their crimes with gaze of tense. 

Judicial, and terrific condemnation! 

Till the Empyrean eddies in one dense 

Black, bloody writhing wraith-mass of the multi-millions 

Robbed, starved, drugged, maimed, and murdered by Great 

Britain! 
Till George the Fifth, ease-loving figurehead, 
Sees every night, in wild, affrighted visions, 
Peeping from out God's spiritual embrazure 
Reserved for shrunken souls, the quailing eyes, 
And hears wail down the wind the quavering treble 
Of George the Third: "Profit by my example!" 

Cheer, Wilhelm, cheer! Bear up, brave soul, bear up! 

The telepathic throbs of all the brains 

Of all the unillusioned patriots 

Of all this Planet's patriotic peoples 

Will brood confusion on thine enemies 

And then converge about thy sacred camp 

And wreathe, a living halo, 'round thy head. 

And may the choicest and God-likest spirits 

Of all the unfolding heavens and trans-heavens 

Of evolutionary possibility, 

From Earth to everlasting Everlastings, 

One vast, encircling, iridescent soul-cloud. 

Breathe benediction on thy dauntless soul! 



CHAPTER VIII. 
SCRIBES, PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES, DIPLOMATS 

In 1909 the British Ambassador in Vienna, Sir Fairfax Cartwright, said: "iVIake war and 
deal quickly with Servia, before anybody can stop you. The end of Servia would be a blessing 
for all Europe." 

Sir Edward Grey in 1912: "Servia is an eternal danger to European peace, its groundless 
aspirations threaten continually the world's peace, the regicidal dynasty must have external 
success to remain in power." 

Sir E. de Bunsen, Brtish Ambassador to Austria: "Be convinced that the whole English 
nation condemns the crime of Serajevo. We are already tired of being thrown again into 
■disquietude by this little country and there is no Englishman who does not wish heartily tha'; 
Serv a receive a sound and lasting lesson." 

What are those Serbs? A semi-civilized people, who but a few years since murdered 
their own king and queen and threw their corpses on a dung hill; a people whose atrocities 
in the recent war with Turkey chilled the blood of all who read of them; a treacherous folk 
Avhose ambition for "Pan-Slavic expanst»on" caused the assassination last July of the future 
sovereigns of Austria- Hungary. 

As one who resided in the Tyrol for many years, I can assure you that what the Dual 
Monarchy has endured from constant intrigues, treachery, and insolent defiance on the part 
of Servia, all of which were instigated or approved by Russia, no other European nation would 
have borne. — Stoddard. 

No European nation could do less than Austr'a has done in this crisis and still keep its 
dignity and the respect of its neighbors, without which the life of the monarchy would be 
indeed in jeopardy. Patience with Slavic intrigue and perfidy had tru'y ceased to be a virtue, 
and if the ultimatum to Serv a was vigorously worded, it is perhaps hardly unfair to say that 
it was suited to the treacherous people to whom it was sent. Anybody familiar with their 
bestial murder of their own king and queen can certainly realize that we have to do here with 
races living on the plane of semi-savagery — a people mpervious to reason who are sure to 
interperate moderation as timidity, who can be taught to feel but not to reflect. — Prof. Sanborn. 



Who started the War? Which one, the little one between Austria and Servia, 
or the big one? The little one, eh? Why, Servia, of course. How? By causing 
the assassination of Austria's heir and his wife; by then refraining from catching 
and punishing the murderers, even permitting without protest the populace and 
press to gloat over it; by then refusing, when Austria caught some of the parties 
implicated and by their confessions learned who were guilty, and that the snake's 
trail led to the very Government of Servia — by then refusing, I say, Austria's 
demand to participate, not in the final trial, but simply in the preliminary investi- 
gation, (the only way to bring the guilty to justice, as Servia couldn't be trusted 
to do it) — I repeat by Servia's refusal on the pretext (to gain time) that she under- 
stood Austria to ask to participate in the final trial, thus infringing on Servia's 
sovereignty; and finally by mobilizing before the Austrian ultimatum limit ex- 
pired. These are the technical facts; but they have no special moral significance. 
The truth is, when the *'Damned Assassination," as Shakespeare calls it, was 
definitely traced to Servian complicity — right then Austria should have declared 
a punitive war on Servia, and pushed it to a point that would bring Servia to her 
knees, both with promises and adequate hostages to back them, that her agitation 
against Austria should forever cease. Austria was entirely too lenient, and God 
knows she has paid the penalty (and her ally, Germany, with her) for the foolish 
delay that enabled Russia to get ready! 

But who started the big war? Technically, Russia. How? By mobilizing 
against both Austria and (later) Germany even while William at "Nickie's" re- 
quest was mediating between Russia and Austria. But, though Russia started it, 
who was to blame for it — surely not Russia; for she is not advanced beyond the 
semi-brute stage, and, hence, not amenable to moral law? Correct. ENGLAND 
was to blame; because Russia would not have started it unless she had the pos- 
itive assurance of England's help. This is not a wild guess. Read the documents 



SCRIBES, PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES, DIPLOMATS. 



10?. 



^ 



and see for yourself. I know it looks formidable to tackle such a bunch of dry 
dates, but this is the most terrible cataclysm that has ever gashed this planet, and 
it is a sorry brain and soul that won't give a few minutes, or even hours if neces- 
sary, to learn where the blame lies for starting it. 

Russia thrust forward her paw, with almost incredible audacity, openly for 
the first time in modern history, with the Doctrine of the Slav, (or Pan-Slavism), 
telling Austria, — although herself largely Slav, — she should not wage even a purely 
punitive war against Slav Servia. She enforced this declaration by mobilizing 
her army against Austria, i. e., declaring war against her, begging wilhelm at the 
same time to mediate with Austria. This amazing request was complied with by 

the Kaiser, who must have been 

dazed at it, but no doubt construed 

that Russia wanted him to use his 
good offices to have Austria be as 
I lenient as possible in her war 

j against Servia. Of course Russia's 

i real object was to gain time, as 

I proven by the fact that even while 

j Wilhelm was mediating with Aus- 

I tria, she (Russia) mobilized against 

I (i. e., declared war on), Germany, 

I too. So, this is how the war start- 

ed. Russia started it, and France 
went with her ally, Russia, and 
\ I England went with her ally, France. 

] GREY. 

England's conduct throughout the- 
negotiations was almost incredibly 
inconsistent and contemptible. I 
haven't space for the voluminous 
correspondence between the pow- 
i ers, but I believe this is a correct 

~ statement of the salient points. 

Grey, slick as grease, gumshoed 
in, corkscrewed around like any 
contortionist for awhile, and then 
slunk out like a whipped cur with tail tucked between his legs. With ominous 
unction he pretended to be for peace. Then he said to Germany: "Austria is 
acting very rashly;" (whereas she was foolishly forbearing); "let me and you 
and Italy and France, — us unbiased outsiders, fix it, don't you know." (So ex- 
tremely unbiased as the sequel proved, even Italy being already apostate, Grey 
himself tied by the umbilical cord to France, and France a Siamese twin to Rus- 
sia.) But William first takes the high position that Austria's punitive war with 
Servia can't be arbitrated; — she has a right to wage it and she ought to do it; 
Servia ought to be punished. To arbitrate the question would be an insult to 
Austria in any event, but to do it at Russia's behest would also be to recognize 
Pan-Slavism. But, said William, and he reiterated it: I will work on Austria, 
get her to agree to be as lenient as possible in her war with Servia; aye, even get 
her to negotiate directly with Russia and give Russia every assurance of her 
proper intentions in prosecuting the war. But Grey insisted on having at least 
an informal confab for the general good. All right, said William, if we limit 
our conference solely to the issue between Austria and Russia, eliminating the 
question of Austria and Servia. (In such a confab, if the tribunal proved to be 
packed against him, there would be nothing binding. Moreover, the point thus 
to be confabbed was the new and terrible Slav Doctrine, now openly asserted 
for the first time — and William could make Grey take a definite stand once for 
all on that barrel of nitro-glycerine, or make him dodge like ft craven before the 
world, thus eliminating himself from his own confab.) So William agreed. Then 
Grey found William was not the fool he supposed and saw himself caught in his- 




From "Kladderadatsch." 
The Kiss of Judas. 



164 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

own trap. He realized that the barrel was loaded, and quit talking conference, 
as lamented by Gambon. 

The only way to save his bacon then was to keep everything as confused 
as possible and bring things to a focus, before William could crowd him. So, 
he gave Russia that final assurance of support (for such allies as these have to 
re-assure each other, don't you know), and Russia continued vigorously her 
partial mobilization against Germany, (having already been mobilized against 
Austria), even while William w^as, at Nicholas' own request, mediating with 
Austria asking her to give Russia assurances regarding the conduct of the definitely 
-determined upon and righteous war against Servia; and refused to demobilize 
when William demanded it, or even to notice his request. This was ^Ya^ against 
Germany. But William took the last possible preventive step by issuing an ulti- 
matum demanding of Russia demobilization. Russia let the time limit pass, thus 
putting the seal on her act of war, and innocent Germany, victimized by Russsia, 
girded up her loins for the fray. 

Thus endeth the First Chapter of Grey. He had squeezed through by the skin 
of his teeth, but his hide was still whole. 

The next, and about the sorriest, scurviest stunt Grey personally pulled off 
was his celebrated misunderstanding fiasco. That fateful August 1st was a sad 
and znglorious day for Grey. It proved his utter undoing. Lichnowsky (Ger- 
many's Ambassador to England) wired Germany that Grey had just 'phoned him 
that he would keep France out if Germany would not attack France. Grey was 
haunted by the illusion that Germany actually wanted to rend France and take 
territory from her. With a brain as full of crooked intrigue as a nest of snakes, 
lie thought Germany was the same sort and that all her efforts at peace were, 
like his own, mere sparring for points. What a paralyzing shock then, must it 
have been to him when Germany with outstretched hand, accepted the offer, 
both through William and the Chancellor. It was a bombshell. It stunned his 
brain. He frantically communicated with "Georgie" over the 'phone, and had 
Georgie wire "Willy" there was a misunderstanding; that next day (thus getting 
time to trump up an explanation), he would have Grey explain to Lichnowsky. 
O, fudge! Now, I submit Lichnowsky didn't misunderstand. It was impossible. 
The matter w^as too important. He had simply uncovered the whole thing and 
forced Grey out of his hole. Henceforth Grey w^as on the jump. 

Here comes Chapter II. 

Grey is dangling in the air. He's got to get into the war; he wants it; most 
of his official confreres do; furthermore, he is bound to France, (probably to 
Russia, too) but he don't know how to pull it off and put it over his people, who 
always like to have some pious pretext. Still he composes himself with the re- 
flection (the good old stand-by) that Germany is bound to save herself by rush- 
ing through Belgium, and that will stir the British heart. Even so, too, although 
he has to squirm somewhat apprehensively when Germany offers not to bombard 
the coasts of France, he still feels reasonably sure Germany wants to take French 
territory. Truth is, Grey was obsessed with the idea all through that William 
actually wanted war, and w^as merely bluffing in professing to be anxious for 
peace. This was Grey's undoing. He tried to corner William by offering a 
tribunal of the Powers. William first called his hand by clearly establishing the 
arbitration distinction. Where Grey slipped up was in having told so often the 
lie about Germany's militarism being solely for aggressive purposes and aimed 
especially at France and its colonies, that he had become so auto-intoxicated with 
the idea, he had actually gotten to believe it. So, thought he, when I demand 
such immunity for France's soil Germany will have to refuse. I'll have her 
in a hole, and not merely English public opinion, but that of the whole world 
will demand the utter obliteration of such a designing monster of Militarism. 
But, thank God, great, guiltless, noble-hearted, peace-loving Germany finally 
agreed, and Grey promptly bowled over and fizzled out like a damp fire cracker. 

Grey, with sardonic grimaces, floundering impotently, grasping at every 
rotten straw, still stalling about working for peace, all the while averring his 
hands were not tied, when pressed to the point, finally had to confess England 
dvas so bound up she could not permit France's coasts bombarded. Germany 



SCRIBES, PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES, DIPLOMATS. 165 

made the concession. She even humbled herself so far as to promise that she 
would not take a foot of French soil in settling the final account. Grey, still 
fanning the air in one more supreme effort to put her in a hole, with great show 
of indignation yelled: "Ah, but, you'd take her colonies." Then, finally 
Germany swallowed even that bitter, utterly uncalled-for, pill, and agreed not to 
exact a single French Colony in righteous retribution and indemnity, if England 
would only keep out. Grey was completely cornered and kerflummuxed. He 
went up in the air. It was his third strike and out. He had to refuse, and con- 
fess to the English people and to the world that he had been lying treacherously, 
horribly, damnably, for years to them and to Germany, and America, and the 
world; — that England was so tied up with France that she had to go to war 
as her ally. Ye Gods! how the infernal revelation must have dumbfounded all 
of his decent constituents! John Burns, the great labor leader, went back in old 
age to poverty again by resigning his lucrative place in the Cabinet. Lord Morley, 
the great historian also resigned. So did Sir John Trevelyan. But little Wincing 
Chudgl still swung on, as he boasted, to drive the German rats (Navy) out of their 
hole and drown them. How well he's done it we all know. 

And with earth's colossalest exhibition of unmitigated gall, Edward Grey 
swung on. 

Yes, ENGLAND REFUSED. The roaring beast, already treed, was now 
smoked out. Limp and tawdry to the ground it dropped and, instead of a lion, 
proved to be a tripartite cross between a jackal, fox, and skunk. 

Until the last moment, however. Grey thought he had Germany salted down 
on the Belgian matter. He thought Germany would be afraid for her own life not 
to rush through Belgium. This would give his country the pious pretext needed 
for declaring war on Germany. How his very soul, then, or its fossil, must have 
started from its socket, when Germany, of her own accord agreed not to go 
through Belgium, if England would just keep hands off. 

This is absolutely straight, in black and white. You can't say "them lyin' 
Germans" forged it. It is taken straight from the English White Paper, being 
Item No. 123 and (strange coincidence) 123 also of the French Yellow Book. 

The only chance now to get into the w^ar was to hide Germany's offer and 
England's refusal from the people, until Germany should rush through Belgium 
(as she certainly had to do, or die) and then use that as a pretext for declaring 
war on Germany. And this was done, as Sir Ramsay MacDonald, a prominent 
member of Parliament confesses: 

"The country had been so helplessly committed to fig'ht for France and Russia that Sir 
Edward Grey had to refuse point blank every overture made by Germany to keep us out of 
the conflict. That is why, when reporting the negotiations to the House of Commons, he found 
it impossible to tell the whole truth and to put impartially what he chose to tell us. He 
scoffed at the German guarantee to Belgium on the ground that it only secured the 'integrity' 
of the country, but not its independence; when the actual documents appeared it was found 
that its independence was secured as well. 

"And that is not the worst. The White Paper contains several offers which were made 
to us by Germany aimed at securing our neutrality. None were quite satisfactory in their 
form, and Sir Edward Grey left the impression that these unsatisfactory proposals were all 
that Germany made. Later on the Prime Minister did the same. Both withheld the full truth 
from us. The German Ambassador saw Sir Edward Grey, according to the White Paper, on 
August 1 — and this is our Foreign Minister's note of the conversation: 

" 'The Ambassador pressed me as to whether I could not formulate conditions upon which 
■we could remain neutral. He even suggested that the integrity of France and her colonies 
might be guaranteed.' 

"Sir Edward Gi'ey declined to consider neutrality on any conditions, and refrained from 
reporting this conversation to the House. Why? It was the most imortant proposal that Ger- 
many made. Had this been told to us by Sir Edward Grey his speech could not have worked 
up a war sentiment. The hard, immovable fact was that oir Edward Grey had so pledged 
the country's honor without the country's knowledge to fight for France or Russia that he 
%vas not in a position even to discuss neutrality.' " 

But, in all of Grey's shameful tergivisations, his snaky circumlocutions and 
treacherous deceptions, one thing stands to his credit: he never personally in- 
voked, so far as I have seen, the Belgian Neutrality hoax as his excuse for the 
war. At the last it was turned over to animalculean Asquith. If he were asked 



166 THE ^YORLD ON FIRE. 

today who, morally, in all conscience, is to blame for Belgium's Neutrality being 
violated, Grey would probably gasp and not answer; but across the whole sky his 
mind would see leap the bloody letters E-N-G-L-A-N-D. Every death in Belgium, 
all its tragic suffering, is on England's head. 

FRENZIED FICTIONISTS. 

In the first place, there's that self-starting, all-fired (or rather always fired) 
steam engine Kipling. He was badly kerflummuxed when the war started; because 
he couldn't rhapsodize over Russia on account of that pesky Adam-zad he had 
perpetrated a few years previous. He couldn't dilate like the rest, on its trans* 
formation into Earth's most advanced Arcadia of Democracy. But, thank God 
Belgium gave him a chance to howl "Hun I" and ring all the changes his cheap 
theatrical heart could crave. 



Chesterton and Bennett were hard put to, indeed. Their only stock in trade 
was a certain whimsical quaintishness which they learned to use to advantage 
with the part of the human race which, in correct intellectual classification, 
would range from 5th grade downward. But they could howl "Militarism" and 
"Broken Treaty" all right. So they "came in strong" as England's hysteria 
gradually increased to outright insanity. 



And don't let us overlook our good old expert official atrocitator, genial Sir 
Conan. He was sorter bottled up at first. He was, for a while, cut off" completely 
from the rich feast of slandering Germany for outraging "poor, brave, gallant 
little Belgium." You see there was that bad break, backed by the "incorruptible 
kodak," where he proved with irrefragable eloquence that Belgium wasn't brave 
and gallant, but was sordid and brutal beyond savagery, and that she actually 
"owed Germany a tremendous score." So, Sir Conan had to lie in a sort of stupor 
for some time until the accumulating gas could blow the stopper out of the bottle. 
It did. You can't keep a good man down. Sir Conan broke loose in the December 
Strand and more than made up for lost time. As he busted out, however, he was 
a trifle discomfusticated. That will clear him from the charge of plagiarism when, 
in his opening screech he claims that Germany started the war out of "jealousy 
of the British Empire." (That was the identical language Germany used about 
England four months previous). However, he soon gets his stride and settles 
down to business. \Yhile he overlooks the assistance the Kaiser gave England 
during the Boer war and, hence, his vituperation on that score will have to be 
overlooked on the quite plausible ground of concentrated ignorance; he yet 
atones in the same sentence for the dereliction by conceding that "The building 
of the German Fleet" made England look askance at Germany. The askanceness 
of said look may have caused Germany's jealousy of England; for, who wouldn't 
envy the graceful gift of looking with such absolute askanceness 1 

He also deigns: "PUBLIC OPINION has to be strongly moved before our country can 
fig-ht and" (such opinion) "might well be divided upon the subject of RUSSIA." Yes, indeed, 
it might. (Thanks for this tribute to at least a goodly part of the English people. Such a pity 
they should have such a press, and such pulpiteers and such publicists and pseudo-statesmen 
to pervert them!) 

"A brutal murder had, not for the first time, put Servia into a position where a State may 
be blamed for the sins of individuals." It makes us wonder how many State-inspired regicides 
it would require before the State COULD be blamed. 

The assassination business would naturally have a sort of interest, don't you 
know, for an Official Atrocitator, particularly one who had gruesomed so exten- 
sively in the Belgian Congo; so, how natural for him to fly back thusly to the 
Candle: 

"The unsavoury assassination bulked large in the eyes of our people, and, setting self- 
interest to one side, the greater part of the public might well have hesitated to enter into a 
quarrel where the cause seemed remote and the issues ill-defined." 



SCRIBES, PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES, DIPLOMATS. 



167 



By this time, Sir Conan has his shrieker in good working order and his 
whoop on Belgium and France will compare favorably with the fiercest. Sezee: 

"The action demanded of us was such a compound of cowardice and treachery that we 
ask ourselves in dismay what can we ever have done that could make others for one instant 
imagine us to be capable of so dastardly a course." 

You've never done anything to me personally at all, Sir Conan; so I'll have 
to refer you to Wm. Wallace, Robert Bruce, Joan of Arc, Mary Queen of Scots, 
your own beheaded king, and the beheaded Consort of your Monster Henry VIII, 
and Robert Emmet, and George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jack- 
son; Denmark (by the way, wonder if that church, the most beautiful in Den- 
mark, they destroyed when they so treacherously, without warning, sailed in 
and destroyed the Danish fleet, was as pretty as the Rheims Cathedral) ; and 
Turkey, and Egypt, and the Boers, and Persia, etc. 

And now I fear we must conclude the Sherlock needle is getting in its deadly 
work for the moment; for our doughty friend fires this at us point blank: 

"France had lavished all her defenses upon her Eastern frontier and left her Northern 
exposed to attack. (" (As witness this tell tale map — the stars representing forts.) 



msm^^$m^^^^^^09 



FLL:sf/I\'i. 



*^/M.''.f'R 










popiM^JJl 




And hear this shrill interrogation: 

"What have we to gain if we win? Tliat we have nothing material to gain, no colonies 
which we covet, no possessions of any sort that we desire, is the final proof that the war has 
not been provoked by us. No nation would deliberately go out of its way to wage so hazard- 
ous and costly a struggle when there is no prize for victory." 

After emitting this calliope screech, dear old Sherlock felt justified in trying 
the needle again. This must account for stumbling down the very next sentence, 
thus: 

"But one enormous indirect benefit we will gain if we can make Germany a peaceful and 
harmless State. We will surely break her naval power." 

And another copious injection into that mighty arm: Germany was influenced 
by "A servile press." 

"Public opinion was poi?oncd at its very roots. The average citizen lived in a false at- 
mosphere where everything was distorted to his vision." 

Now, these are almost the exact words Germany used against England four 
months before, and would sound parroty in a mere ordinary man. In Sherlock, 
however, Sherlock who has accomplished with ease so many physical, mental, 



168 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

and spiritual absolute impossibilities, it is a stroke of genius, in that it transforms 
in a twinkling a correct photograph of the Harmsworth "Yallers" into an alleged 
picture of the German Press. 

One more copious injection, and hear this outbust: "When the goal is 

reached, huge armies and fleets will be nightmares of the past." True, 

true, Germany's armies will all be disbanded and no ileet permitted on the sea 
except deah hold Hengland's, don't you know. 

Of course, too, we had no real reason to fear Sherlock wouldn't get his second 
wind in the atrocJat.on steeplechase. Why, once started, he made all the others 
look mere quarter-horses. He actually discovered that the Germans in punishing 
the ''Snipers," (as is absolutely inevitable in such cases) killed some that were 
innocent, and thereby committed a special brand of MURDER. They committed 
a special brand also in their bobarding and bomb bombing the tight little Isle. 
True, the English bombarded in Belgium and bomb bombed there, and in Germany 
also, FIRST, and killed a goodly bunch of innocents, but they had a reason, don't 
you know. Such slaughter of German and Belgian innocents by English is entirely 
different from the vice versa of the proposition. The proof of that is the Boer 
war, during which it is historically related: 

"The London "Standard" printed a Pretoria dispatch, dated August 9 saying: 'The Boers 
sniped a train at Bronkhurst yesterday on the line between Pretoria and Middleburg. Two of 
Its occupants were wounded. In accordance with Lord Roberts' warning, all the farms were 
fired within a radius of ten miles.' 

"This ca?e differed entirely from the case in Belgium. A couple of Boers fired at a mil- 
itary train, perfectly within their rights as warriors, and every farm house within ten miles 
in every direction was committed to the flames. 

"The following account of the sacking of Dullstroom was written by Lt. Morrison, of the 
Canadian Artillery, and published in tlie London "Truth": 

" 'During the trek our progress was like the old- time forays in the highlands of Scotland, 
two centuries ago. We moved on from va'iley to valley lifting cattle and sheep, burning, loot- 
ing, and turning out the women and children to sit and weep in despair beside the ruins of 
their once beautiful farmsteads. It was the first touch of Kitchener's iron hand — a terrible 
thing to witness. We burned a track about six miles wide through those fertile valleys. The 
column left a trail of fire and smoke behind it that could be seen at Belfast. ***** 

" 'Nobody who was there will ever forget that day's work. About 7 o'clock in the morning 
our force seized the town after a little fight. The Boers went into the surrounding hills, and 
there was nobody in the town except women and children. It was a very pretty place nest- 
ling in a valley. The houses had lovely flower gardens and the roses were in bloom. The 
Boers drove in ovir outposts on the flank and began sniping the guns, and amid the roar of 
the cannonade and the crackle of rifle fire the sacking of the place began. First there was 
an ominous bluish haze over the town, and then the smoke rolled up in volumes that could 
be seen for fifty miles away. The Boers on the hills seemed paralyzed by the sight and stopped 
shooting. The town was very quiet save for the roaring and crackle of the flames. On the 
steps of the church a group of women and children were huddled. The women's faces were 
very white, but some of them had spots of red on either cheeks, and their eyes were blazing. 
The trooi s were systematically 'looking the place over' (looting), and as they got quite through 
with each houre they burned it. As I stood looking, a woman turned to me and pathetically 
exclaimed: 'Oh, how can you be so cruel!' I sympathized with her and explained that it was 
an order and had to be obeyed. But all the same it was an extreme'y sad sight to see the 
little homes burning and the rose bushes withering up in the pretty garden, and the pathetic 
groups of homeless and distressed women and little children weeping in abject misery and 
despair among the smoking ruins as we rode away." 

"Gen. French, who is now commanding the English troops in France and sending the sav- 
age Indian hill tribes against the Germans was "shifted" from his command in the Boer War 
for barbarous warfare. Quoting a London cable dispatch of the time in the American press — 
'the avowal that England had enlisted savages to aid in exterminating the Boers has given 
the nation pause This is not only a violation of the express pledge given by Mr. Balfour at 
the outset of the war, but it is contrary to all civilized usages. None knows this better than 
even the British in South Africa that when you put arms into the hands of the natives and 
send them to fight, it means that every rule of civilized warfare will be abandoned, that no 
quarter will be given, that the wounded will be murdered, and that other and nameless hor- 
rors will be perpetrated. . . . General French was shifted from his command in the north- 
western Transvaal in consequence of sending natives against the Boers, owing to protests 
from the Natal government. 

"When the shares of the Chartered Company were found to be unsalable rubbish 'a pre- 
text was therefore found for making war on Lobengula and seizing Matabeleland — a pretext 
as transparently dishonest as the pretext for the invasion of the Transvaal. All the circum- 



SCRIBES, PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES, DIPLOMATS. 169 

stances showed in that case as in this, that the coup had been carefully prepared long before- 
hand. When the train had been laid, a quarrel was picked with the Matabele, who had entered 
Mashonaland at the Company's request, and they were attacked and shot down by this same 
Jameson while doing their best to retire in obedience to his orders. Instantly the whole of 
the Company's forces, all held in readiness, entered Matabeleland under the pretense that the 
Matabele and not the Company were the aggressors. Lobengula's savages were mowed down 
by thousands with Maxims. Those who were taken prisoners were killed off to save trouble. 
The envoys sent by the K ng to try and make terms were barbarously murdered.' " 

"In a speech on March 13, 1900, Mr. Labouchere said: 

" 'The Boers had now been driven out of British territory, but the only terms upon which 
the British government would make peace were degrading to a brave and honest people, namely, 
the surrendering of their independence, and the blotting of their nationality out of existence.' 

"Elsewhere the great editor said that 20,000 women and children had perished in English 
■Concentration Camps." 

So, gentle reader, we see how different the dear old English way is. The 
truth of the business is they really prefer to starve the innocents to death. It 
gives the doctors a chance to get interesting data on the length a non-combatant 
non-eater can live, don't you see? But, enough; of course, you "follow" dear 
old Sherlock. 

One of the uniquest effusions, however, is by Sir Ray Lankester, who stoutly 
contends that there is no true culture now in once cultured Germany — since HE 
left there after getting a diploma some seventy-five or forty years ago. I had for- 
gotten Ray. It's a poor war that blows nobody good; so I can thank the present 
struggle for bringing Ray back to me. It was this way, that I forgot him: I had 
simply failed to read my Darwin's Origin of Species for nearly eleven years. I 
am ashamed of it, and it shall never occur again. Any man who aspires to the 
realms of real philosophy ought every other year at least to read that most 
wonderful of all books, and every time he reads it he will thrill with some new 
discovery. But there is one elaborate part of it he will be struck with the very 
first reading; perhaps the most amazing achievement of all the intellectual tri- 
umphs of the greatest intellect this planet has ever seen. 1 refer to his treatment 
of Ray, this same Ray, our present hero, Ray Lankester, if you please, who, rush- 
ing in "where Angels feared to tread," poured out a veritable diatribe against 
Natural Selection, or Evolution, as Darwin unfolded it. Read it, and I know you 
will say that Darwin's decortication of Ray was the most wonderful piece of 
intellectual and spiritual surgery ever performed by man. While not leaving 
a single infinitisimal strip of hide, he yet did the clipping and lifting with a 
patience, a charity, a scientific tolerance and disinfectant solicitude that baffles 
belief. 

So efficacious was it that in only fifty-four years Ray has come to see the 
point and speaks almost eulogistically of Darwin in his aforesaid article in the 
February Strand. Perhaps if he lives fifty-four years longer he will speak civilly 
even of Haeckel, of whom he speaks churlishly in his latest ebullition. 

OTHER OBFUSCATED ENGLISHERS. 

Perhaps in all the ages there has been no psychological phenomenon to com- 
pare with the fantastic cavortions of the English self-styled intellectuals. As they 
see day after day the startling superiority of German Militarism, not merely on 
land but on sea and in the air as well, they fan themselves into a frenzy of fan- 
tastic fury, losing all their long-boasted poise and equanimity. Their piercing 
screeches echo through the firmament until the Angels weep. Now, I have con- 
siderable human nature myself, and I don't want to be too censorious of these 
befuddled Britishers. I feel quite sure I would be just as hysterical, just as illog- 
ical, just as partisan, just as contemptibly hypocritical as they if my country 
should deliberately bring about and then itself with murderous "formed design" 
plunge headlong into the most horrible war that ever shook the planet. Such 
conduct on the nation's part is bound to put even its very best citizens in a 
psychological stampede. In such a case I only hope I would have the spiritual 
courage of Sir Ramsay MacDonald, to justly curse my country for her infamy — 
and then shoulder my gun and help fight for it. So, I am not blaming these 



170 THE WORLD Ox\ FIRE. 

worthies. I just want the people to know that their excited ejaculations are not 
worth their weight in hot air. Dear old Dr. Bryce comes nearer keeping his 
balance than any of their ready writers. But even he gets tripped up on the 
Belgian proposition. (They all climax their capers with that themselves — damn- 
ing episode). He makes, however, the point that the larger nations should pro- 
tect the weak ones, overlooking the way England has carnaged and subjugated a 
dozen of them — and above all he seems to be astoundingly ignorant of the way 
England held the knife and made Belgium cut her own throat. (See 123 and 155 
of English White Paper — afterwards appropriately called Blue Book). 

Even so. Sir Harry H. Johnston, on a stage all set by himself, after zig-zagging 
around on a perfect whirligig of Casuistry, (in the December Nineteenth Century) 
until he thinks he has the reader sufficiently dazed for the final, hypnotic pass 
winds up with this triumphant shriek: "What justification can Germany advance 
to the world for a sudden and unprovoked attack on Belgium!" Just 123 + 155, 
Sir Harry. There is plenty more, but that's quite enough. 

In the November North American Review, however, we have the weirdest, 
outre-est, most super-perfervid, hyper-hectic, and ultra-hyperbolical performance 
of all, by one, Archibold R. Colquhoun (pronounced Ker-hoon, if you are in a 
hurry or have the asthma). This sort of thing don't often get by Col. Harvey, but 
even the divine Homer nodded, and surely some one in deah old Lunnon must 
just then have taken snufT, compelling a disconcerting sneeze from the Colonel, 
during which Kerhoon slipped by. Brer Kerhoon flounders along for a few 
pages like Mark Twain's immortal canal boat on Lake Erie: 

"She heaved and sot, and sot and heaved, 

And high her rudder flung; 
And every time she sot and heaved 
A mighty leak she sprung" — 

And then, suddenly she explodes from an over-accumulation of hot air to 
the effect that the Emperor of Austria was not grieved, if indeed he didn't actually 
rejoice and connive at, the assassination of his own son and heir. The explosion 
turns her turtle, and the good craft gums up the canal. However, Dollinger Ker- 
hoon had taken the precaution to howl "Neutrality" before he jumped into the 
mud. But let's accredit him with contributing these interesting admissions against 
interest : 

First. "The British Government dared not commit itself to any definite line of policy until 
PUBLIC OPINION had been openly roused over the question of Belgian Neutrality." 

Second. "Secret societies, intrigues, and the cultivation of forbidden nationalism are the 
breath of life to all Slav peoples." 

Third. "It must have been difficult for many Canadians to understand the why and 
wherefore of the war." Thanks: the witness may stand aside. 

******** 

Thus concedes Mr. Lathebury in the November Nineteenth Century: 

"Had the neutrality of Belgium been respected Sir Edward Grey's action might have been 
less prompt and the response of the nation less unmistakable. Never surely were the chimes 
of midnight more welcome than when they announced that England had declared war against 
Germany. 

"To those who take this view of the war and of its origin it is scarcely possible to overrate 
the obligations we are under to Belgium. The continuous and repeated sacrifices made by 
this heroic little nation have gone far to save England from a similar fate." 

We have heard the word "cynicism" frequently bandied since this war 
began. I enter this morceau anent Belgium as my selection against all comers. 

******** 

Even Sir Thomas Barclay, since 1907 the authority of the Encycl. Brit, on 
International Law, pipes in in the February Nineteenth Century, with a yawp 
about "The Rape of Belgium." He evidently thinks people do not read or, if they 
did, have forgotten this statement he made when his brain was cool: 



SCRIBES, PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES, DIPLOMATS. 171 

"It is nevertheless conceivable, that under prei-sure of military necessitj", or on account 
of an overwhelming interest, a powerful belligerent state would cross the territory of a weak 
neutral state and leave the consequences to diplomacy." 

There is one comparatively iinterrified denizen of England's domain, how- 
ever, who at least partly "shells down the corn," to-wit., her incorrigible Irisher, 
G. B. Shaw. Here is how he puts it: 

"For centuries now the Ijion has held to one idea, that none shall be greater than England 
on land and none as great on the sea. To him it has been nothing whether a rival to England 
was better or worse than England. 

"For a hundred years no Englishman knew what it was to turn pale at the possibility 
of an invasion. For more than two generations the Lion lay and basked and smelt no foe 
that with a pat of his paw he could not dispose of. 

"Then a rival arose again. Battles more terrible than Waterloo were fought against the 
same foe, but it was not England that won them. The Lion rose and began to watch with 
the old instinct stirred in him. He heard the distant song of 'Deutcshland Ueber Alles.' 
Something in him said, 'Never that while I live.' 

"The rival built a warship, built another, and openly challenged the Lion's sovereignty 
of the sea. That was the end. From that moment it was only a question when to spring, 
for a lion, with that one idea at heart, with that necessity deep in his very bowels, must be 
crafty, must win at all hazards, no matter how long he crouches before the right moment 
comes. 

"You see it coming in the Yellow Book. France avoiding a fight and Russia gradually 
arming herself and training for it; Austria speculating on it; all, even Austria, afraid of the 
Lion's rival, Germany. 

"France, always maneuvering for peace, being outnumbered, at last finds Germany defiant 
of her and Russia, and contemptuously sure she can cruch one with the right hand, and the 
other with the left, yet fears the Lion. It is well known that if he comes to the aid of 
France and Russia the odds will be too terrible even for the victors of Sedan, France sud- 
denly bullies Germany; tells her to clear out of Morocco and to clear out sharp. Germany 
looks at the Lion and sees him with quivering tail about to spring. The odds are too great. 

"With mortification tearing her heart Germany clears out, successfully bullied. For the 
first time since the rise of his star the Lion is balked, but there are new forces that the Lion 
must take account of. If a rival will not fight it is not easy to attack him, and Germany 
will not fight unless the Lion can be detached from France and Russia; yet, she is sick with 
the humiliation of that bullying and knows that nothing but riding down the bullies can 
restore her prestige and heal her wounded pride. 

The Lion broods and broods. Deep in his subconsciousness stirs the knowledge that 
Germany will never fight unless, unless — the Lion does not quite know what, does not want 
to know what, but disinterested observers complete the sentence thus: unless Germanj' can 
be persuaded that the liion is taking a fancy to Germany, is becoming a bit pacifist and will 
not fight. 

"Then Asquith and Grey with good conscience found themselves busily persuading the 
world that the Lion was not bound to help France and Russia. When the great day of 
Armageddon came thej^ persuaded the nation, persuaded the House of Commons, persuaded 
their own Cabinet, and at last, persuaded Germany, and the Lion crouched almost before he 
was ready. 

"The devil's own luck struck down the Archduke by the hand of an assassin. Austria 
saw Servia in her grasp at last. She flew at Servia, Russia flew at Austria; Germany flew at 
France, and the Lion, with a mighty roar, sprang at last and in a flash had his teeth and 
claws in the rival of England and will not allow her to go for all the pacifists and socialists 
in the world until he is either killed or is back on the Waterloo pedestal again. 

"I know well that the Lion's day has gone by and that the bravest lion gets shot In the 
long run." 

Apart from the wrong done Germany, in misrepresenting her consistently 
pacific attitude, the main mistake Shaw^ makes as to England's performance is 
in assuming she had no binding treaties wath France and Russia, but merely 
waited "on her own hook" for a chance to strike. The probable truth is that she 
had treaties with them, but, as with all her other treaties, wouldn't have hesitated 
to break them wherever her interests seemed to suggest. In this case they sug- 
gested keeping her secret treaties with France and Russia; though several times 
in the negotiations she wobbled over some contingencies she w^as trying to antic- 
ipate and safe-guard. 

With another exception, all of these English Infuriates climax their cavortions 
with the quavering bleat about violating Belgium's neutrality. Gentlemen, here 



172 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

is your answer, — frame it and hang it on the wall; look at it from year to year 
in your lucid intervals; it will stand the shock of time; it will sound sane, logical, 
conclusive, a million years from now: GERMANY DID IT TO SAVE HER OWN 
LIFE. You would do likewise under parallel conditions. If you wouldn't you are 
degenerate weaklings or even craven yellow-bloods. When you say you wouldn't 
you simply lie! The truth is, some of you if put to the test, would not merely 
rush pell-mell over the posted property or the person of a neighbor to save your 
own lives, but you would do it to save the lives of your loved ones; — aye, if the 
supreme test should come, your skulking deceptions in this great crisis prove 
that you would be coward enough, in order to save your own life, to rush over 
the very persons of your own loved ones. 

Even all of the best known English "heavy" writers extept one, raise this 
climacteric Belgian howl of hypocrisy. That notable one is R. S. Nolan. His 
article in the November Nineteenth Century is indeed a great one, by far the 
greatest I have yet seen from the Anti-German viewpoint. It is remarkably dis- 
passionate and even discriminating in many particulars, considering how dis- 
traught any English mind must be in the face of the terrific phenomenon that the 
folly of the English war-party has precipitated. Nolan had the advantage of a 
sixteen-year series of visits to Austria and Servia in getting a correct concept of 
the true issue involved between these two countries. Hence, he honestly and 
broadly concedes: 

"That, in fact, Austria had ^ for some years been receiving continued provocation from 
Serbia is little open to question. Three years ago I paid a short visit to Belgrade and subse- 
quently went down through the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Sarajevo, where I 
had for a short time the advantage of the society and assistance as interpreter of a Serb 
student from Belgrade, the seething disloyalty amongst the Serb population was almost vis- 
ible to the naked eye. 

"When Bosnia and Herzegovina were annexed in 1908 war almost broke out between Serbia 
and Austria. Eventually, in March, 1909, friendly, neighbourly relation? purported to be re- 
stored between the two countries, Serbia giving to the Powers promises for better behaviour 
In the future." 

He generously applauds the English Blue Book for this tremendous "give 
away" anent the Arch Duke's murder: 

"No crime has ever aroused deeper or more general horror throughout Europe: none has 
ever been less justified." 

(Incidentally, he is fair enough to concede that the English entertained 
generally a "cordial dislike of the Prussians.") He likewise comes squarely to 
the rack with this fundamental concession: 

"She (Austria) may very well have thought that even a full acceptance by Serbia of her 
demands, though she would have been obliged to acquiesce in it, would, in fact, have led to 
little result, and that nothing would make any impression on Serbia except military chas- 
tisement." 

And this, referring to the Austrian commentaries on Servia*s evasive answer: 
"but taking them together, they succeed in instilling into the mind some distrust 
of the answer as a whole." 

He also magnanimously grants that "fairly recent history" of Servia's con- 
duct toward Austria must be taken into the equation. 

Again he makes this pregnant admission: 

"Very few years ago Europe found it necessary to pass severe censure on the Serbians in 
respect of the assassination of their King and Queen, and in token of censure to withhold 
diplomatic representation from the country, England persevering for the longest period in such 
withholding." 

Again he shows a judicial breadth by allowing: 

"It will be remembered that the demand was to institute judicial proceedings against the 
participators in the plot who were on Serbian soil, and that delegates of the Austrian Gov- 
ernment should take part in the investigations preliminary to the proceedings. To have asked 
that the delegates should have taken part in the actual judicial proceedings would have been 



SCRIBES, PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES, DIPLOMATS. 173 

, « „„t ,„ the sovereignty of an independent State, yet the Serbian answer 
a much greater aftront to the «>J<:«^« ^ ^^^^ ,^„,^. ^s the Austrian Government 

purports to have construed '^e Austrian deman ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ 

had already become possessed °' ™P° ^*;'^^';;'f<j t„^e part in the investigation which shouW 
t^^ ZrT^^Tl^ re: not seem so preposterous." 

Not only the Servians.but the Russians English, UZh^f^^l^^'J^TZ 

^„ivS"tHr^stt'o7'La^ii^rn/= 

He finally generously concedes that the Servian government had done noth- 
ini» to bring the criminals to justice. 

" "NTw'here is a curious Psychological phenomenon ™^has^bsoUjtely con- 
ceded himself out of Cot-rt and jlo'^ ' JcX^^'^ f)om the^ Premises that Servia 
partial mind is bound to ^raw the cone usion ir y ^^^ 

hut^rslr^'^o^e^treraftf r°a\e°ttu'rf rl^^^^^^ of her enormities 

••^^^ A^dX^do I say this. A si-Ple i"-tration will^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^:^:TZ 
the Maine Ue^ up th^-fj^^^^u ope 74^*^;^'^^ ^ ^/^J^d to participate in an 
rn^:^g:»yt:fn" SP Jn t"d"h^e would investigate, but would not let the 

United States P«^'^"Pf*,^-^,.i„.tion of her own, pronounced not that Spain had 
America had an inyestigation 01 ner o ' i" j the outside in 

official complicity at al but that the ^f \;^^^,r ^Tultimatum, an opportunity 
Spanish waters— and then what, uia we g . ^^ ^ ^ ^^ bluntly and 

'^rX'nnZV^ rron^~n! AbsTu^dy'no "lu^pean protest was fUed- 
L7t7r:^y'Eng4"nf France and Russia abs^^^^^^^^ ^^^^,,^,^, ,^ „„, 

Austria's right ^^^^IZ^'r/Zce's and Rus ia's acquiescence, at any 
precedent, so to speak: England s, 5'^='"";. %" stronger right. And why 

rate, estopped them f[«™ «!''<='=»■"!. .^^jt^f^VerXr and his wife who were 
was Austria's right stronger. f»^st It was n^^ ^vhereas it was 

"blown up," so to speak; an a«ack aimed at Sovereignly , second: 

only a boat of ours with private f t'^„\"Vin that inve ti^Son or even hinted at 
Spain's official comphcity was not proven in tha^ invesU^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ 

—the utmost suggestion in that line coming ironi ^; , ,^j established in 

blew the boat up; whereas, Servian complicity was indispmaoy ^^^ ^^ 

the Austrian case by »ctua confes ion o the murd re^s ^^_^^ ^^P^^^^^^^^ ^^^ 

long line of intrigmng conduct against her J^ our sufficient guarantees 

lent in offering Servia a way out by /h^ g'J^"/,°f f^^i^ parties to justice. Lord 
of her future good behavior and by P"".?'"« '7.=^,,. ^j,^Vt as developed. Lord 
r.rev denominated these demands as very still , "^'^ "" 
ZZ "had something on ^s mind." They were no .00 ^ff- ^^^^„^ ^^^^ 



174 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

He gets into this curious dilemma simply because he is an Englishman, and, hence, 
naturally is so obsessed that he goes with England when she takes the view that 
Russia has the right to intervene. 

Although, at this point the inquiring mind fairly thrills and blazes with the 
question: "What was Russia's right to intervene"; although it is the supreme 
question, the basic test to decide who was responsible for the world-war, Nolan 
goes into a trance over it and never brings it up again, except wholly incidentally. 
After that he dins away on the proposition that Germany, by not conceding 
Russia's right to intervene, brought on the war (which is true, because it brought 
Russia to start the war by mobilizing) and, hence, is morally responsible for it 
(which is not true either in fact or inference.) 

By reason of being thus auto-hypnotized, Nolan easily falls into the error of 
censuring Germany for failure to include utterly immaterial matter in her White 
Book. It was immaterial because Germany's position was absolutely clear at the 
outset and continued absolutely consistent to the end. Her position was this: 
"Austria's conduct to Servia is right and I approve it. She has a right to wage 
a war against Servia. Russia has no right nor has any one else any right, to inter- 
fere. I respect Russia. We have fought together in good causes. Her Czar is 
my Kaiser's cousin. I respect her feelings. She has a large Slav element in her 
Empire, just as Austria has. Therefore, I am willing to use my good offices to 
the utmost and bring all my influence to bear to induce Austria, in her war with 
Servia, to wage it solely as a punitive one; not to be too extreme in its prosecu- 
tion, to localize it — in other words to go no farther than is necessary to punish 
Servia properly and get from her absolutely sufficient guarantees of her future 
good conduct toward Austria. In this way, I favor the principle of mediation 
and in this alone. I shall even have Austria personally take the matter up with 
Russia and assure her that her fellow-Slav State Servia shall not be too severely 
handled; in fact, I would have Austria to ask Russia herself to ofTer any reason- 
able suggestion in that behalf. But, never shall I submit to having my ally's abso- 
lutely just position in her difference with Servia, arbitrated by other nations, 
upon Russia's demand or with reference in any way whatsoever to Russia. To 
do so would be to bow to the doctrine of Pan-Slavism, which means that Russia 
has a right to intervene wherever a Slav is concerned. This would disintegrate 
Austria, which has a large Slav citizenship, and by inevitable gradual encroach- 
ment, eventually overthrow Germany — and, in fact, the whole Teuton race, if 
not other great races as well. No, I shall not recognize Pan-Slavism, and if Russia 
goes to war with Austria to enforce it, I shall certainly stand by my Ally. The 
amazing thing to me is why you, England, and you, France, should be willing 
to recognize such a dangerous doctrine. No, I shall be glad always to help 
Russia, to respect her feelings from the sentimental standpoint of Fe//oR;-Slavism 
with Servia, but never her policy of Pan-Slavism over the Teuton race." 

Now, Germany never swerved for an instant from that position, and, honest 
reader, wasn't that position absolutely correct? You know it was. So, it put the 
whole thing, the final question of war or not, squarely up to Russia. Russia 
wouldn't yield. She demanded Pa/z-Slavism, mobilized to enforce it, in other 
words went to war. And never a ward of protest from England or France. Their 
protests were all aimed at Germany. 

So, the trouble with Nolan is simply the prepossession, the subconscious 
assumption that England can do no wrong; therefore, Russia had a right to 
assert Pan-Slavism (because England sided with her), and to start the big war 
for it; and that Germany, refusing to submit to it, made Russia mobilize; and that 
therefore, Germany was, morally responsible for the war. 

I believe I have stated Nolan's position with scrupulous correctness and that 
any impartial reader will so decide. 

From a certain standpoint Nolan is logical. If we concede that war is so 
dreadful that any nation must submit to any sacrifice to prevent it, even to being 
bullied and undermined and eventually wiped off the map by a brute, rather 
than permit itself to fight the armed brute demanding it; then Germany was wrong. 
By such logic England and France were excusable in urging Germany to betray 
her ally and incur unlimited shame and eventual overthrow, and in not 
commanding the brute: "Stop there, you shan't impose your new and dangerous 



SCRIBES, PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES, DIPLOMATS. 175 

nH" „rnvi<1pd of course, they knew the brute wouldn't listen to them and 

"Hst E3:ii' h= "Jt'r stirs ir="s 

from the alternative Dead ^^^<^ '' ;; ^/^ ^^^^ 11,. ^f their own conduct, as 
^hTwrbVNolin, th'y'm^slVrinute potion without a murmur and die without 

unseemly P?'-«?y^"i^- . . ^^ Sazanow, the Russian Chancellor, as saying 

,hat-''%"e'di?nybe"fe^ve\ermany ''really wanted war," (and that confession, 

--V^:r™ attVer^st^a^^r'^ «%"in J^o^la^n^^rn^! -. -^^^ ^Llen^J 

WonTrTan e h p her? Tno twhy^'not? She is her ally. She sympathizes 

°th Lr- She botes Germany Why won't she help her? Simply because she is 

"^ .H Rnt a imie later Xf replied to Germany, in effect, that she would help 

scared. But a •'"''' '^'.""r^'l'g^^^^^^ ^hy, Mr. Nolan? The only answer is 

Sfv Mr Nolan at last aives even England's case dead away. 

Rnt in addition to the remarkable-under-the-circumstances-candor of Mr. 
Nolafwe must thank hini for a conspicuous merit. He doesnf rhapsocl.- over 
FnelarnVs conduct enough to hurt; and furthermore, doesn't mealy-mouth at all 
over the Violation of Befgium's neutrality. But all the others do. And their 

AMERICAN ECHOES 

never cease reverberating it. , . o . 

Tn the first Dlace think how Doc. Eliot has pelted the welkin with it. But 
don' "le*'waltu:'on%"oc. He's too much like '<Marse John/' who^e apo ogis 

^^{^ d jry."°T;?bVsZit^stndeti-:k 'r,'but;i^\ ^^^^z^ 

hU werra.MstoMalkin'.'' Since Canny Andy confessed on the witness stand 
7fewweekrago that the Doc was drawing a pension from him. let us charitably 
conclude that it ain't Doc talkin';— it's that pension. 

By "far the ablest American criticism of Germany I l^^™/^;;" '% ''""u" 

refused Germany's proposition that she^Germany,-would i;o^^g°2'3Y''"iut the 
gium, if England would only keep hands off (English ^lue Book l^ci^^ Bui 

of the learned Doctor's able essay has been rather slight. 

JIM BECK VERSUS GERMANY 

Scene— In the Supreme Court of Civilization. 

Clerk Calls: "James M. Beck vs. Germany. 

Chief Justice: "Is Appellant's Attorney present?^ 

Mr. Beck, arising with consequential air: He is. rmiH?" 

Chief Justice: "Have you been admitted to practice in this Court? 



176 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

Mr. Beck: "I have not; but" — "But what?" "I am exercising my (ahems 
with importance and looks wondrous astute) "ah, Constitutional right to be my 
own lawyer." "Ah, ha," laughs the Chief Justice, with gusto, "Remember the old 
aphorism 'He who acts as his own lawyer, has a fool for a client.' " 

"But, your Honor, I feel constrained to protest in the name of International 
Morality." 

Chief Justice: "Yes, but why you? Why not somebody with some profun- 
dity, some knowledge and appreciation of the great laws of the Universe, as dis- 
covered and propounded by the great scientists and philosophers — I dare say 
you can't mention one such law. Name one." "Why, er, none happens to occur 
to me just now. Of course, a lawyer isn't supposed to know those sort of laws." 
"Why then do you speak of International Morality and such like; what sort of 
lawyer do you call yourself?" Expanding with importance: "I am a Technical- 
itist." "Oh, yes, one of those little fellows that would chase the tip of his nose 
a dozen times around the world trying to find an ingenious subterfuge or sophistry. 
Well, no more of this. 'A short horse is soon curried.' I've read your brief, or 
rather your prolix. 

"Next time you prosecute a case in any Court, go with your own skirts clean. 
If you would have equity, you must do equity. Although not an Englishman, and 
hence, not having the excuse of patriotism, you assume that Russia was all to the 
right in asserting Pan-Slavism. You falsely state that 'Germany's case rests upon 
the gospel that each nation is justified in exerting its physical power to the utmost 
in defense of its selfish interests." Substitute the words "own life'' for "selfish 
interests" and you will have it all right. 

"Knowing Germany offered not to go through Belgium if England would keep 
hands off, you have the effrontery to say she (England) was justified in declaring 
war on Germany after refusing and thereby showing to Germany beyond the 
shadow of a doubt that she, England, was going to fight Germany — thus compell- 
ing Germany to go through Belgium, and at once, TO SAVE HER OWN LIFE. 
You never mention this (123 of English Blue Book); nor do you mention that she, 
England, thereupon, without acquainting Belgium of Germany's offer and her own 
(England's) refusal, immediately notified Belgium that she (Belgium) would be ex- 
pected to resist Germany. Yet, you indiscriminately call people liars, deceivers, 
hypocrites, and charge them with criminally concealing documents which are 
utterly immaterial. 

"Compared with the squeamishly, ludicrously over-scrupulous Chancellor's 
"pettifogging" as you dub it, your own conduct is the lowest skulduggery. You 
pretend that Germany and Austria guiltily concealed their correspondence because 
it would disclose that instead of Germany's trying to avert the big war, she was 
trying really to precipitate it. Fortunately the testimony of both Russia (Saz- 
anow, already quoted) and Belgium (it's Russian Charge d' Affaires) confound your 
execrable innuendo when they positively state that Germany strove for peace; 
the Belgian Minister going further and letting out the secret that England's assur- 
ance had so re-emboldened the war party of Russia that it had absolutely taken 
over the situation. This is but one of your scores of dodges, evasions, quibbles, 
and ethical forgeries. 

Here are the exact words of M. de L'Escaille's secret letter of July 30th, to 
the Belgian government: 

"The days of yesterday and today have been spent in the waiting for events that must 
follow the declaration of war by Austria- Hungary upon Servia. What is incontestable is, 
that Germany has striven here, as well as at Vienna, to find some means of avoiding a general 
conflict. 

"This morning an official communique to the newspapers announces that the reserves 
have been called under arms in a certain number of governments. Knowing the discreet 
nature of the official communique, one can, without fear, assert that mobililzation is going 
on everywhere. 

"England began by alJowing it to be understood that she did not want to be drawn into 
a conflict. Sir George Buchanan (British Ambassador) said that openly. Today one is firmi/ 
convinced at St. Petersburg — one has even the assurance of it — that England will support 
France. This support is of enormous weight, and has contributed not a little to give the upper 
hand to the war party." 



SCRIBES, PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES, DIPLOMATS. 177 

God only knows what evidences of secret intrigue against Germany are 
buried in Belgium. Among other things discovered is the absolutely, to an 
impartial mind, convincing proof by undenied documentary evidence, that Bel- 
gium had been for years in a distinct conspiracy with England and France 
against Germany. England calls these deadly documents simply conversations; 
in which she damns herself by the analogy afforded by her conversations with 
France, which she finally had to acknowledge to be binding. These conversations 
added to the mute but eloquent testimony of her and France's arrangement of 
forts, make 'confirmation strong as proof of holy writ.' 

"You are too obtuse even to take advantage of the biggest technicality you 
could have used. You see only microbes and overlook the enormously larger 
mosquitoes. 

"The German people are not diplomats — because they are fundamentally 
honest. It is their greatest ethical asset. But it affords you shystering technical* 
itists a wonderful opportunity. You stress the dear old Chancellor's bad break in 
the use of the word 'wrong,' whereas the very context (for >ou harp on the 
text, and stickle for it) shows that the correct word was injury; but the old Chan- 
cellor, not being a diplomate and not catering to shysters didn't take time or 
trouble to use exact shades; relying of course on the entirety, or full text, of his 
utterance to convey his meaning should a mere word be misused. 

"Now you saw your chance here — others had rung all the changes for you; 
hence you couldn't overlook it. So you pounced on that break of the Chancellor's 
and mouthed it to the limit. But the old Chancellor made another much worse 
break than that you overlooked it. Why, you actually quoted it and yet didn't 
see the chance it gave for shystering. Quoting you, Jim: 

"The Imperial Chancellor added that 'if Russia feels constrained to take sides with Servia 
in this conflict, she certainly has a right to do it.' " 

"You see you could have fairly foamed at the mouth over that word right. 
The Chancellor meant, of course, that Russia had the physical power, and the in- 
tellectual option, to side with Servia, but not the right, which would embrace the 
question of moral sanction. But you lost that big chance, Jim. Condolences. You 
may be able to use it to advantage another time. 

"As an illustration of your undeviating unfairness, you say: "Germany's fatal 
fallacy was 

"that its duties to civilization were so slight that it should support its ally, Austria, whether 
the latter were right or wrong." 

"This statement of yours, Jim, is not only a "fatal fallacy," it is a downright 
falsehood. Germany's position throughout was that Austria was right, absolutely 
right in her determination to wage a punitive war on Servia, after Servia's rejec- 
tion of the ultimatum; Germany's policy would no doubt have been to support 
Austria even if no ultimatum had been offered Servia, because it would have been 
right. As soon as the murderer confessed Servia's official complicity, Austria 
should have declared a punitive war on her. But, Jim, why w^aste words with 
you. Your side has been stated by Nolan, ten times more fairly and strongly 
than you can state it. Suffice it to say that, after stating (by some psycholog- 
ical accident, no doubt) the real issue correctly, by saying: "The peace of the 
world was at stake;" after coming thus to the forks of the road; like Nolan, you 
take the wrong fork and instead of acknowledging it was Hussia, do you hear 
that — RUSSIA, I say, that was at-staking it You pretend it was Germany; Ger- 
many, which as a matter of fact, even as casuistric a little brain as yours must 
see, was, in the interest of that very Civilization of which you prate so glibly 
and know so little — I say even you must see that Germany was, for Civiliza- 
tion's as well as her own, and Austria's sake, simply resisting RUSSIA, resist- 
ing PAN-SLAVISM aggressively thrust at her by RUSSIA. The right thing was 
for Russia to have withdrawn with thanks after making a purely sentimental 
plea to Austria, in behalf of Servia, (a plea purely on the fellow-S\av and not 
the Pan-Slav side) the moment Austria's positive promise was given and backed 
by Germany, as it was, that the conflict should be localized, Servia's territorial 
integrity should be respected, and the whole war should be a purely punitive one. 



178 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

"There was the test. Russia should have accepted it instead of chewing the 
rag, trying to gain time (a favorite proposition of yours, Jim,) and to discover 
some plausible pretext for war. And your friends, (or clients, if you prefer the 
word) Jim, England and France, if Russia wasn't willing to do that, should have 
made her do it. That is the real crux of the whole question. It would have 
then been up, absolutely to Austria to keep her word. If she didn't it would then 
have been up to Germany, her ally, to either compel her to do it or repudiate her. 
If Austria failed to keep her word and Germany failed to make her do it; then, 
and not till then, if ever, Russia had the right to declare war on Austria; and 
then, and not till then, if ever, England and France had the right, as allies of 
Russia, to join Russia if Germany stood to her ally in such wrong. Drive a spike 
on that. It is an absolutely correct statement of the question, one that honest 
minds in the future, however warped by prejudice and partisanship now, will 
agree on. 

"No, Russia's only possible pretext for resisting Austria's right to wage a 
punitive war on Servia would have been a special treaty with Servia, and no 
such treaty, not even a secret one, was ever acknowledged or even hinted at by 
Russia. And even if such a treaty existed, it would furnish only a pretext. The 
true treatment for it would even then have been for those wonderfully peaceful 
powers, England and France, to have joined with Germany and constrained 
Russia to make her ally Servia give full and permanent guarantees for the future 
to Austria. That proposition is irrefutable. 

"But, enough, Jim; life is too short. Your case is dismissed with the costs 
against you. You are guilty of contempt of court, and your performance merits 
the utmost punishment; so you are sentenced to non-publicity in print; but, 
since the Court of Civilization, unlike your courts of Technicality, seasons justice 
with mercy, we will make it for only the period of the present war. 



THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT. 
So, in the very last analysis, the whole proposition whittles down to this: 

DID RUSSIA HAVE THE RIGHT TO PREVENT AUSTRIA FROM PUNISHING 
SERVIA? If she did, then Germany is to blame for upholding Austria. If she 
didn't, then, nominally and technically Russia is to blame for the war; actually 
and morally England is; for in the supreme test Russia wouldn't risk war (she 
so stated literally) unless France went with her; and France (w^ho had had an 
illuminating experience w^th Germany in 1870) wouldn't help Russia unless Eng- 
land would join her. So the peace of the world, the moral responsibility for the 
war, was, in the last analysis, absolutely up to England! 

And England let France know she would join her; and France told Russia; 
and then the Russian war party in Russia, which had been held in check, took 
over the whole situation, mobilization which had been going on quietly, though 
denied on the celebrated "Official Russian \Yord of Honor," was openly admitted. 
Germany's effort for peace was at naught— she had lost seven days to Russia's 
treachery (otherwise she would have Paris right now) ; and had risked her very 
life, trying to the last minute to preserve the peace of the world. This we prove 
by hostile testimony, the telegram of the Belgian Minister at St. Petersburg, 
M. de L'Escaille. (He never knew it would get into print — and it never would have 
but for the Germans finding it in Brussels. It has never been printed in the 
English Blue Book — but it has never been denied by any one whomsoever.) 

Let's view England's part in a still stronger light. England had long ago 
proven to the world absolutely convincingly that Russia was only a semi-civilized 
country; in fact, a mere oligarchical despotism. What she overlooked in mak- 
ing up her terrific and overwhelming indictment and conviction was more than 
supplied by George Kennan, Russia's own Kropotkin and all his kind and the 
swarms who fled over the earth after feeling the knout and wading in pools of 
pogrom blood. 

And Servia was not even semi-civilized; she was semi-savage. No one will 
deny that. She had murdered her own king and queen and thrown their mangled 



SCRIBES, PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES, DIPLOMATS. 



179 




0^^^^^^A -i^j^^l I'.'^^^y^ 



Top left, from "Lustige Hlaeller." Pteler of Sei\ ia. — ^^'llilher shall I ride? 
The Spirit of Alexander of Servia. — To that dark land to which you sent me. 
Top right, from "Amsterdanimer." Company for Austria's Assassinated Archduke. 
Bottom: The Two Battle Standards, Austria and SerVa, from "Kilkerki," (A^ienna.) 

carcasses on a dung-heap. When her new 
king took his blood-bespattered throne, 
Russia began to pull the strings. Servia's 
Slav-second nature, as Colquhoun calls 
it, to intrigue, asserted itself. Her en- 
croachments, secretly inspired by Rus- 
sia, on Austria, became utterly intoler- 
able. She was called down, and made 
by the powers, Russia included, to prom- 
ise to quit her machinations. Instead of 
doing it, she kept them up on a larger 
scale than ever, and they culminated 
with her not merely indirectly bringing 
on, but, under the confession of the ac- 
knowledged murderers themselves, ac- 
tually, aye, officially aiding and abetting 
the heinous assassination of Austria's 
heir and his wife. 

HOW THE PRISONERS' BENCH AT THE SARAJEVO MURDER TRIAL SHOULD HAVE 

LOOKED. 
In the upper row are seen Poincaire and King George; in the lower, King N cho'as of Mon- 
tenegro, the Czar of Russia, and King Peter of Servia. 




180 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

What should Austria have sent, eh? A letter of congratulations? A memorial 
of thanks, with the request to come over and get the Emperor also? Perfumed 
billet doux, embossed and inlaid with pearls of great price? Aye, shouldn't she 
have struck off twin medals, to commemorate the deed divine, and erected twin 
monuments on the spot, to Prinzip and Peter? 

Ah, she was foolishly forbearing. She should have clutched Servia by the 
throat instanter and jammed her head against the wall until thoroughly cured 
of her murderous Russia-inspired mania. 

So, for the "Civililzed State of Europe," or any civilized part of it, the ques- 
tion of "International Morality" involved is this: Had Russia, a semi-civilized 
despotism, without even claiming in extenuation to have an alliance or treaty 
with Servia ;^ — had semi-civilized Bussia a right to prevent Austria from pun- 
ishing Servia, a semi-savage country, for aiding and abetting the assassination of 
Austria's heir and his wife? There can be but one answer, even for Europe. 
Suppose it had been the Prince of Wales whose assassination Servia aided and 
abetted. What would England have done? 

If necessary to get to Servia's throat, she would have rushed through Belgium, 
Switzerland, or any other neutral country that intervened. 

Suppose Mexico had so acted toward the United States, culminating in aiding 
and abetting the assassination of our Vice-President, at a time, too, when the Pres- 
ident was in feeble health; — but it is surplusage to ask what we would have done 
when we know what w^e did do, when not her prospective ruler, but private cit- 
izens were slain by the blowing up of a boat in Spanish waters, the responsibility 
for the blowing up being solemnly denied by Spain, and the only proof that even 
a Spanish private citizen had done it, being the preponderance of probability of 
the explosion having come from without. Yet we declared war on her for it. 
We didn't lose precious vital time to issue a "stiff" ultimatum and let her evad<^ 
it by trumping up technicalities; but w^e declared war right now. And, unlike 
Austria, we not only made no promise it should be merely a punitive war, without 
affecting Spain's Territorial Integrity, but we actually dispossessed her of Guba^ 
Porto Rico, and the Philippines. So, the American who believed that America 
was in the right (and 99 per cent of them so believed, or, if they didn't, lyingly 
claimed to) now makes a ludicrous ass of himself if, with a knowledge of the 
actual facts, he contends that Austria didn't have the right to punish Servia. 

If she had the right, Russia had no right to open her mouth, much less to 
mobilize and bring on war. 

So, England in pretending to try to preserve the peace, proves to be the 
Hypocrite-in-Chief of all History. By actually backing Russia she brought on the 
World War, and thus proves herself the brutalest National Murderer of all the 
annals. And, finally, as a climax, she makes Belgium cut her own throat and 
blames Germany v/ith it; conceals the truth (Germany's complete surrender of 
everything she had a right to, — 123 of the British Blue Book) from her public 
until she can fire their hearts against Germany, and declares war on Germany 
for going through Belgium, the very Belgium Germany promised to keep out of if 
England would only keep hands off. 

Now, add to all this England's suppressing her binding alliance with France 
for years from her citizens, actually denying it in open Parliament when asked 
about it, then acknowledging it, but refusing to be bound by it, (See Cambon's 
statement); then awkwardly reacknowledging her obligation; add all this, I say, 
citizens of the world who profess to be honest, who demand honesty in others, — 
and in the name of God Almighty where does England stand? I submit that I 
have not over stated it when I say: No one can trust her; nothing she says can be 
believed; as interest suggests she will lie, cheat, steal, or wage the most hellish 
war;— she is in fine historically the Monster of the Ages, and right now the Uni- 
versal Enemy of all honest men, and all nations that strive for "International 
Morality." 

But of all her unenumerable infernalisms all down the ages, not one — not 
joining the Gossack and the Jap, thereby yellowing or brindling civilization; not 
hiring all available black-and-tan hellions to slaughter her own blood — nothing 
can compare in excruciating human horror with her treatment of poor Belgium. 

There stood Germany, renouncing all her rights; there stood Germany, her 



SCRIBES, PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES, DIPLOMATS. 181 

own blood, respecting her denied, then acknowledged, then repudiated, then re- 
acknowledged alliance with Latin France; there stood Germany offering to suffer 
France's and Russia's combined onslaught without (as any country would have a 
perfect right to do) taking a single foot of the soil of France itself or any of her 
colonies; there stood Germany, England's blood-brother, assured repeatedly that 
England wanted peace; there stood Germany, with open hand and open heart 
pleading with her blood-brother not to fight against her for the Slav and Jap; and 
finally, to run the cup completely over, offering to keep out of Belgium — thus losing 
weeks of vital time, at least a quarter of a million additional soldiers, possibly her 
life itself; provided only, England would keep hands off. And pure, peace-loving 
England REFUSED. (English Blue Book 123), and straightway, commanded Bel- 
gium to resist Germany (English Blue Book 155.) 

There is not one man in every thousand in America outside of the German- 
Americans who knows one syllable of this. If they did their rage against the 
English monster would not end with less than a declaration of war against this 
Universal Enemy of the human race. 
Americans, here is 123. 

The German Ambassador asked me whether, if Germany gave a promise not to violate 
Belgium neutrality, we would engage to remain neutral. 

I replied that I could not say that; our hands were still free, and we were considering what 
our attitude should be. All I could say was that our attitude would be determined largely by 
public opinion here, and that the neutrality of Belgium would appeal very strongly to public 
opinion here. I did not think that we could give a promise of neutrality on that condition 
alone. 

"The Ambassador pressed me as to whether I could not formulate conditions on which we 
would remain neutral. He even suggested that the integrity of France and her colonies might 
be guaranteed. 

"I said that I felt obliged to refuse definitely any promise to remain neutral on similar 
terms, and I could only say that we must keep our hands free. I am, &c., E. GREY." 

Great God! but that shot was a sixteen-incher! Watch the rotten pile tumble! 
The whole fungus-coated reeking mass and clotted tissue of false pre- 
tense; the nauseous hypocrisy; the rant, cant, and blather blatant; the mock 
heroics, the hysterical ululations and lies rampant and riot; the puling Phar- 
isaism; the seething slush and mushy gush; the lugubrious snuffling psuedo-sighs; 
the gasconade, fanfaronnade, and rhodomontade; the poppycock and balder- 
dash; the ineffable flub-dub, flap doodle, and folderol; the bathos and illimitable 
buncombe; all the cheap melo-dramatic accessories of stage lightning, tin-pan 
thunder, soughing sobs, staccato screeches, pumped-up me-oans and gre-oans, 
quavering cat-calls, sibilant shero-whispers and villain-hisses, — in fine, all the 
punky, funky, snivel, piffle, and drivel about England's fighting to keep her word 
to and protect a weak nation— all tumble in a stinking heap; and the tank of croc- 
odile tears that crowned the putrid pile falls with it, bursts, and washes the whole 
smoking mess of nastiness into the sewer! 



A PARTING WORD ON VIOLATION OF BELGIAN NEUTRALITY 

The gravest mistake the Germans, and their kinsmen in America have 
made in this war, is being too concessive, for fear, in their ultra-honesty, (if I may 
be pardoned for so calling it), lest they be thought disingenuous or lest they do 
their enemies an injustice. The dear old Chancellor made that egregious blunder 
in speaking of the march through Belgium either as a violation of International 
law or in any sense a wrong. Of course the context clears it up: but the word 
he should have used is "injury." Of course the Anti-Germans have garbled it and 
done great harm to the German cause with it. 

Now, as a matter of fact, the dear old Chancellor, in his almost divine de- 
sire to stand absolutely straight, actually leaned the other way. The march 
through Belgium didn't violate any principle of International Law. Why? Be- 
cause all law rests upon and carries with it fundamental Implied Contracts. The 
very fabric of concrete government itself rests upon a basic, implied contract, 
called the Social Compact, which simply means that those who constitute the 
Government agree to its written and implied provisions. 



182 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

Says Blackstone: 

'"Implied contracts are such as reason and justice dictate." 

Says Parsons, one of the greatest of authorities : 

"These contracts form the web and woof of actual life." 

Says Gladstone: 

There is, I admit, the obligation of the treaty .... but I am unable to subscribe to 
the doctrine . . . that the simple fact of the existence of a guarantee is binding on every 
party to it, irrespective altogether of the particular position in which it may find itself at 
the time when the occasion for acting on the guarantee arises. The great authorities upon 
foreign policy, as Lord Aberdeen and Lord Palmerston, never to my knowledge took that 
rigid, and if I may venture to say so, that impracticable view of the guaiantee." 

Again. The American doctrine is that treaty obligations must not and can- 
not be kept if it is against public policy {vide unanimous judgment rendered in 
the Chinese Exclusion Treaty cases by the United States Supreme Court printed 
in Vol. 130 of U. S. Reports, page 600.) 

Here is the exact language: 

"It will not be presumed that the legislative department of the government will lightly 
pass laws which are in conflict with the treaties of the country; but that circumstances may 
arise which would not only justify the government in disregarding their stipulations, but 
demand in the interests of the country that it should do so, there can be no question." 

When the parties who signed the Belgium Neutrality Treaty put their pens 
to the document, ordinary intelligence must surely concede that each one did it 
with the mental reservation (the Implied Contract, if you please) that he was 
not signing his own death-warrant. Else they were all fools — and fools can't 
make binding contracts. The implied contract must certainly be assumed that 
if all the other signers should wage war against one, and thus draw a cord of death 
around him, he would have the right to break the cord wherever he chose, cer- 
tainly wherever best calculated to save his life. By the very act of waging war 
they rupture the contract and absolve him. Now, Russia waged war against 
Germany, by mobilizing, dragging France with her by the bond of Alliance. Even 
then incredibly brave, foolishly overscrupulous Germany told England that she 
would not violate Belgium's Neutrality if England would keep hands off. England 
refused. Germany even agreed further to forego taking French territory, yea, 
taking French Colonies, if only England would keep hands off. England refused. 
Any one with brains enough to grease a gimlet is bound to know that that meant 
England was to fight Germany. It was up to Germany to act — and act quick. As 
soon as she recovered from the stunning revelation, she did act like lightning. 
She had a perfect legal right to rush through Belgium against Russia and France 
and Servia alone (they were more than 2 to her 1); it was really imperative for 
her to do it to save hundreds of thousands of human lives, (possibly — and any 
onlooker would have said probably the life of the whole Empire itself.) But 
with England added against her — but pshaw! life is too short, a fool ought to see it. 

Again eliminating the question of implied contract under International Law, 
England had refused (although herself proposing the measure) to ratify the propo- 
sition that Neutral States were inviolable, which all the other powers in the Hague 
Conference, the world's latest word on International Law, ratified; and surely her 
refusal to ratify it estops her from even protesting against, much less waging war 
about, its violation. 

But grant that Germany though not bound to England, was bound by Inter- 
national Law to France and Russia; that that law had legal sanction; that it re- 
quired her to commit suicide; — there is still a law beyond and above such man- 
made law, — God's own law, the fundamental law of the Universe itself, that would 
not only justify Germany but would have made her wholly unjustifiable not to 
have done as she did. That is the law of SELF-PRESERVATION. 

Germans, stand firm on that, for there your feet reach solid rock, aye, the 
Rock of Ages, the rock on which Creation itself rests. When you stand there you 
are braced by the right hand of God. Every living creature, from the lowest 
single-celled piece of primordial protoplasm up to the gigantic brains of Darwin 



SCRIBES, PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES, DIPLOMATS. 



183 



and Haeckel, stands with you there. Every animal that ever swam or crawled, 
or flew, or swims or crawls or fles the sea or earth or air today — above all, every 
red-blooded man, stands by your side on that sacred spot. And, rest assured, 
that every puling sacrosancster, who says that, by whatever treaty bound, he 
wouldn't rush over the property, and, if necessary, the very person, of another 
to save his own life, is either a yellow-blood, a pervert, or a liar. No, not even 
a yellow-blood, not even a pervert would do it; and he who says, "I would not — 
I would sooner vicariously give up my own life," is a top-notch liar, a liar by 
note, an unmitigated liar, and the truth is absolutely not in him. 

In the fierce flux of war's mad passions, in its rapid panoramic incidents, 
the mind sometimes becomes confused by irrelevant technicalities. But, Ger- 
mans, w^henever you approach this Belgian phase of the controversy, right at the 
start, drive a spike in this conclusive proposition: After England went against 
her, Germany absolutely had to rush through Belgium to save her own life. 
Make that the very crest-fortification of your Gibraltar. It will withstand any 
shock of specious sophistry. After you have once taken this impregnable po- 
sition at the top, if you wish to argue minor phases, all right; go on down the 
slope and bowl the foe over just for fun. You have a number of impregnable 
positions. But always use them as mere subordinate, lower, and flanking lines 
of defense wholly unnecessary but used simply for crushing the battalions of the 
foe before they can even get in seeing distance of the impregnable crest. 

Never again apologize, for rushing through Belgium. No normal man has 
the right to ask vou for an apology for doing what he himself would do. Simply 
say: GERMANY DID IT TO SAVE HER OWN LIFE— and let it go at that. And 
your antagonist will simply have to change the subject or "light a shuck," or wilt 
before your very eyes. 



A PANORAMIC VIEW. 




Peter. — Had we not better show ourselves for an encore? 
Nicholas. — No, we must keep behind the scenes. 

Honest reader, let's rise out of ourselves, for a moment, and, brushing aside 
all the fog of immaterialities, all the clouds of gratuitous personal injections into 
the controversy, and confining ourselves wholly to historical facts, let us take a 
high view of the panorama spread before us disclosing our planet's greatest 
tragedy. Let's entitle the awful Drama: 



184 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

WHO SET THE WORLD ON FIRE ? 

ACT I. — The Forests Where the Faggots Grew. 
SCENE I— FRANCE. 

Germany (1870) defeats France and takes back Alsace-Lorraine. France, 
wounded to heart's-core at the humiliation, plants the dreadful tree of Revanche 
throughout her whole domain. Makes the tree a National Institution. Fertilizes 
trees without ceasing with Nitric acid of Hate to give luxuriant growth, Potash 
of Transmission to children to keep plant and fruit alike robust, and Phosphoric 
Acid of Educational Inculcation and Propaganda to make trees prolific of fruit. 

SCENE II— RUSSIA, defeats Turkey (1878.) Powers at shortly subsequent 
Berlin Conference prevent Russia taking Constantinople on which her heart was 
intensely set. Russia plants trees of Resentment and Future Acquisition. Austria 
and Germany lying right in her path to Constantinople, form Alliance against her 
clearly defined Aggressive purposes, and are joined by Italy, whose entrance is 
confined to issue alone of Defense (of which she later takes technical advantage.) 
Nothing secret about this alliance. 

SCENE HI — Same Berlin Conference awards guardianship of Semi-Savage 
Balkan Bosnia-Herzegovina to Austria. 

SCENE IV — Germany prospers almost beyond belief and her commerce ex- 
pands perceptibly, 

SCENE V — ENGLAND sits up, takes notice, looks on askance. Plants trees of 
Envy and Jealousy. 

ACT II — Gathering And Drying The Faggots. 

SCENE I — France and Russia form alliance of secret nature against Ger- 
many and Austria. 

SCENE II — Germany's progress continues apace, at accelerating speed. Her 
commerce reaches all shores; promises to totally eclipse England's — which is 
still enough, however, to keep her prosperous — (finally port of Hamburg actually 
passes Liverpool and London.) Within forty years, German trade has increased 
500 per cent., while the English trade has only increased 150 per cent. With 
such tremendously expanding foreign commerce, Germany begins to build Navy 
to safeguard it. 

SCENE HI — England's rage knows no bounds. She begins systematically 
through the press to poison the world, particularly America, on which she has a 
peculiar hold by reason of having invested billions in the stocks and bonds of 
American industrial enterprises. The only available slander against Germany 
being her alleged Militarism, England rings all the changes on that, with special 
fury against the Kaiser, cousin of her own King, and ruler of the ancestors-in- 
the-main of her own people. With atrocious diatribes and vicious cartoons they 
depict him day after day as a military Moloch-Gone-Mad, and circulate with won- 
drous art all pictures and incidents pecularly adapted to enhance the impression. 

SCENE IV — RUSSIA: is defeated by Japan, secretly aided by England's in- 
fluence. 

SCENE V — England forms Alliance of secret nature with Japan. 

SCENE VI — Then forms Alliance (Triple Entente) of secret nature — still un- 
disclosed — with France and also Russia, specifically denies in Parliament any 
binding arrangement with each other — (special binding arrangement with France, 
afterward officially acknowledged, just prior to war.) 

SCENE Yll— Austria spends upward of $200,000,000.00 industrializing and 
civilizing Bosnia-Herzegovina. 

SCENE VIII — Servia, Semi-Savage, Warlike, wildly Ambitious State, covets 
Austria's ward, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and intrigues to disaflfect it. 



SCRIBES, PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES, DIPLOMATS. 185 

SCENE IX — Austria (1908) annexes Bosnia-Herzegovina, with the acquies- 
cense of all powers that signed the Berlin treaty wiheh made her the ward. Serv'a, 
however, fairly foams at the mouth; but is repressed by Buss: a, which probably 
has secret pact with her, but hasn't recuperated sufficiently from disastrous war 
with Japan to risk war. 

SCENE X — Bussia continues feverishly to get loans aggregating billions from 
France to improve her military efficiency. 

SCENE XI— BALKAN WAB. TUBKEY DEFEATED. 

Balkan States fall out and wage war over division of spoils. Develops that 
Russia has secret treaty with Bulgaria and Servia; but deserts Bulgaria and backs 
Servia. Bulgaria is defeated. 

ACT III — Firing The First Faggot. 

SCENE I — Servia foments unlimited faction against Austria. Is called down. 
Powers compel her to promise to refrain and in future to be decent neighbor. 

SCENE II — Servia continues fomenting faction worse than ever. As direct 
result (the trail of the Snake leading absolutely to the official fountain-head) 
Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria, is assassinated by Servians, 

ACT IV — Waving Blazing Faggots Among the World's Powder Magazines. 

SCENE I — Servia officially sullen; won't take action to bring murderers to 
justice. Permits press and public to boast and gloat over the monstrous assassina- 
tion. 

SCENE II — Austria holds Court of Inquest; (something like Uwted States 
when Maine blew up;) gets from participants actual confession of Servia's official 
complicity. 

SCENE III — Austria issues drastic ultimatum to Servia, embodying number 
of demands. Servia's reply, evasive throughout, declines main demand — claiming 
it aims at sovereignty in demanding delegational repreesntation at the final trial, 
when it specifically states Preliminary Investigation. 

SCENE IV — Bussia reaches out her paw. The world trembles. Hell roars 
with huzzahs. 

SCENE V — Austria, (probably expecting, and perhaps desiring, refusal; for 
punitive war alone would really give the only absolute assurance of condign pun- 
ishment for Servia and proper guarantees for her future decent conduct) — re- 
ceives Servia's refusal and declares a punitive war against her. 

SCENE VI — Bussia specifically states if France will back her she will go to 
war. 

SCENE VII — Grey, with lugubrious look and deprecating right hand gesture 
stands before blind and deplores the ominous situation, at the same time approv- 
ingly patting the screened Russian bear on the back with left hand. 

SCENE VIII — Grey proposes conference of Powers. Germany declines, on 
ground it would be blow at Austria's sovereignty; frankly states she approves 
Austria's conduct, and will not permit her proposed punitive war with Servia 
to be arbitrated; but favors general peace; will do all she can for it, will be glad 
to accept principle of mediation out of consideration of Russia's alleged hurt 
fellow-Slav feelings — in fact, will mediate personally on that simple sentimental 
point between Austria and Russia and will even advise Austria to herself take it 
up directly with Russia. Accordingly Wilhelm begins mediation; induces Aus- 
tria to open direct negotiations. Russia continues vigorously her mobilization, 
already begun, against Austria. Her ministers, however, give their "word of 
honor" it hasn't begun. The Czar, however, confesses the truth a few days later 
and says he can't stop it and begs Wilhelm to still try to save the situation. 

SCENE X — Wilhelm complies with the amazing request; th^n learns Bussia 
is mobilizing against Germany as well as Austria; issues ultimatum to Russia to 



186 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

demobilize; Russia doesn't even notice it; but, technically, even, starts war by 
crossing German border, after having already flung the blazing faggot of Mobili- 
zation against Germany, which Germany finally seizes and by straight declaration 
of war proceeds to burn Russia up with. 

SCENE XI— Heaven holds its breath and Hell takes a half-holiday. 

ACT V — England Hurls Belgium Into Hell and Tries to Set Whole World on 

Fire. 

SCENE l— Germany says to England (123 of British Blue Book) I will not ex- 
act a foot of French soil or a foot of her Colonial soil; aye, terrible as the risk to my 
own life is, I will not go through Belgium, if you will only hold hands off. Heaven 
rings with hosannahs. 

ENGLAND REFUSES: Wires Belgium to resist Germany; (155 of English 
Blue Book); lifts hell's lid; holds knife and makes Belgium cut her own throat; 
and holds her blinded where Germany has to thrust her aside into furnace to save 
herself. 

SCENE II — Germany, offering to guarantee integrity and independence and 
pay all damages, asks permission of Belgium to pass by to save her life. Belgium 
dramatically refuses and, blinded, primes her guns. 

SCENE III — Germany starts across Belgium. Belgium fires on her, slaying 
great numbers of soldiers. Germany forces her way. 

SCENE IV — England's ministers conceal 123 from the people; fan them to 
insane pitch of fury; declare war on Germany expressly for going through Bel- 
gium. This faggot sets another third of the world on fire. 

SCENE Y — England kicks over Pandora-box of all ills; unleashes all black- 
and-tan hell-hounds of Cerebus; pours petrol on the United States and signals to 
Wilson and Bryan to light it. They hesitate. 

CLIMAX: — All Hell holds council. Motion made by Mephistopheles himself, 
seconded by Ananias, Michiavelli, and Talleyrand in chorus, that hell be dug a 
hundred miles deeper for the damned of this glorious war and Grey at proper time 
be put in charge of the new department. Carried with such unanimous flap of 
wings, the fall of soot for moment almost extinguishes the general glare. Hell's 
Scavenger-in-Chief in voice tense with emotion, declaring with affecting candor 
his motto had always been : "Better to serve in hell than rule in Heaven," but that 
now there stands revealed a greater genius for the work, magnanimously moves 
that, in due season, Asquith take his place. Likewise carried by acclamation. 
Temporary adjournment pending developments. 



SEEN THROUGH THE SMOKE. 



Wilson and Bryan refuse to actually apply torch. Permit, however, England 
to seize all American cargoes she wishes, with only pleasantly couched protests. 
Permit indefinite munitions of war to be sent to England and her Allies. In other 
words, gives England everything but soldiers (which are not needed.) Hyphen- 
ated Americans slanderously charge America is complete ally of England; (not so, 
only four-fifths.) 

TURKEY ENTERS WAR. 

Italy gets on point but is jarred loose by volcano. Still seems to want to leap 
into furnace. 

Roumania and Greece reported wild to jump in. 

W^ilson and Bryan send namby-pamby note to England for hoisting American 
flag when Germany announces submarine warfare on England's merchant vessels 
in reply to England's announced intention to starve German non-combatants; reads 
riot act to Germany; get duly called down by Germany — will probably show 
better sense in future. 



SCRIBES, PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES, DIPLOMATS. 187 

WHAT GERMANY SHOULD DO IN BELGIUM. 

Stamp 123 on everything, mail and parcels, going either way, between Belgium 
and Germany and the rest of the world, and 155 also on all coming from England 
to Belgium. 

Build at proper intervals 123 monuments, each 155 feet high, of skulls of 
soldiers slain in Belgium, set in reinforced concrete. 

THE VERY LATEST ! BRINDLED SMOKE AND MUFFLED YELLOW FLAMES 

RISING IN EAST. 

Kitchener boasts fighting will begin in May. At time suspected he hoped 
Russia would break through. Probably had in mind, however, Japan's entrance 
into arena. Probably hatched up this diabolical plot with Japan: 

"I'll hold Uncle Sam off; get Congress adjourned and keep it lulled. You 
then push your demands on China. By, say, April 15th, when she sees Uncle Sam, 
under my influence, has deserted her, China will give in. You will then have entire 
Orient in hollow of your hands. In exchange for my thus chloroforming Uncle 
Sam into giving up for all time his great Eastern market, you are to furnish me 
1,500,000 men." 

Curtain just up on first scene of this stupendous side tragedy. Enter Japan. 
Submits 21 demands on China. China blanches and sickens. Faintly refuses. 
Japan insists. (This March 15th.) 



CHAPTER IX. 



TO GERMAN-AMERICANS 

THE GERMAN-AMERICAN TO HIS ADOPTED COUNTRY 
(By George Sylvester Viereck in Fatherland.) 



The great guns crashing angrily 
Sound, distant echoes, in our ear. 

We pray for those beyond the sea 
Whose lives to us are very dear. 

We catch a mother's smile. We seize 
In thought a father's hand again. 

We see the house and, thro' the trees, 
A girl's face in the window-pane. 

May God above them stretch His hand, 
For men are mowed as fields of rye. 

Destruction rides on sea and land 
Or drops, like thunder, from the sky. 

Columbia, tho thou shed no tear. 

Must thou fan hate with evil breath 
Through ghouls in easy chairs who 
sneer 
While these our brothers go to 
death? 

Shall these that are thy children fling 
Their gibes upon our brothers' 
scars? 



We taught our hearts thy songs to sing. 
Ay, with our blood we waged thy 
wars. 




Reho in "New York World." 
"My ole man an' your father belong to 
the preserves an' mebbe dey'll have to go 
back to Europe and fight each other." 

"Well, den we'll have to fight each other." 
"Nawl We're Amerikin citizens an' noo- 
trils." 




Bradley in Chicago Daly Xeivs. 
The Season of Inconsistencv. 



TO GERMAN AMERICANS. 189 

THINGS THAT ARE EQUAL TO THE SAME THING ARE EQUAL TO EACH 

OTHER. 

Gentlemen, you are strictly up against it. You begin to see what "us real 
Americans" think of you. You've caught it from us where the chicken caught 
the ax. Your awakening has been somewhat rude, about like unto Caesar's when 
Brutus stabbed him. But, let me adjure you, wax not wroth against "us real 
Americans." Of course you think you are entitled to a slight grouch. But you 
€rr most egregiously. While you have done fairly well thus far; while you have 
seen your mother country traduced and villified, and your kinsfolk slaughtered 
by the thousands, even with American guns and dum-dums; yet, you, for six 
months stood it quite nicely, always keeping docilely submissive and uncom- 
plaining, just as good little (supply the blank for yourselves) should do. You 
have, as the Church of England directs, "Ordered yourselves lowly and reverently 
to all your betters." But alas! you seem to be kinder kickin' out of the traces 
just now. Your attitude smacks slightly of the obstreperous and cantankerous, 
or even of the rampageous. You are asserting a new doctrine: America for 
Americans; when you know quite well it is for Englishmen. Thus you become 
guilty of Tiir-reason, and I hereby call a halt. 

Now I charitably concede that it is but a transient emotional ebullition on 
your part. You will be over it bravely in a few days, all right. But don't do it 
again. Let's look at the thing calmly and frankly. 

In the first place, understand that what I say is said more in sorrow than 
anger, and for your own good. I am friendly to you. I would like to keep you 
prosperous and cheerful; for I need your work and might even need you for a 
a war if I can get sufficient pretext to declare one on Germany. My friendship is 
thus sincere, as much so as it is for any of my servants, or even for my horse and 
dog — provided you always remain docile. Of course, you know a great chasm 
yawns between us. To be — ah — perfectly frank, as men should be in serious dis- 
cussion, don't you know, I am your superior. True, I call myself an American — ■ 
Anglo-Saxon, which would literally mean an American-German (for both the 
Angles and the Saxons were pure (ierman); but, even if there were no saving 
qualification an American-German must needs be superior to a German-American. 
Why, you ask? Now, don't get excited and unreasonable. It must be that way — er 
— it's bound to be, don't you see — because — but time is too precious; you must 
accept it without explanation. But, there is a saving qualification; even to the 
term Anglo-Saxon. For an Anglo-Saxon is only two-thirds German. How, you 
ask in your ignorance; why not all German? Ah, there, the whole secret of your 
inferiority lies. You Germans are a mere clear strain, a straight stock, you un- 
derstand — what the biologists call a pure breed; whereas, "us Anglo-Saxons," 
are what biologists call, don't you know, ah — er — liybrids. Now , please don't 
repeat that smile. You see, we have gotten into our blood the benefit of a rich 
exotic infusion, the noble Latin, don't you know, and "us American-Anglo-Saxons" 
have gotten a dozen other infusions besides, though none so rich as the olive- 
complected Latin, of course, but enough to color our blood with a beautiful varie- 
gated efTect. 

I had thought all along, that you instinctively recognized this superiority; 
else, I would have straightened you on the subject long ago. 



A PSYCHOLOGICAL PARADOX 



Now, German-Americans, assume that this is a correct picture of President 
Wilson's feeling and attitude to you (and the assumption won't miss it much.) 
His disregard for your feelings, or rather disbelief in your possession of them, 
and his rather poorly (though politely as possible) concealed contempt for you 
is absolutely honest, being based on his consciousness of your ineftable inferior- 
ity. And in this view he represents the rest. 

"But," you expostulate, "look at Germany, what she has done and is doing!'* 
"Yes," he answers with really pitying concession : "She does tolerably for her 
chance, but she is such a little dab on the map — no bigger'n our State of Texas." 



190 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

*'But,' 'you persist, "there are 70,000,000 people there." "Yes, 70,000,000 gutteral 
beings, euphemistically called human, grunting away in their grotesque lingo." 
You answer: "indeed? A full one-third of the English language came from Ger- 
many — certainly the most graphic and expressive part." "But, the Germans have 
done so little." To be sure. Partially utilizing Frederick Schraeder's enumera- 
tion, they are merely a people who "established personal and spiritual liberty for 
the world. Whom, even in barbarous times Casar and Tacitus praised. Of w^hom 
the Emperor Titus said : 'Their bodies are great, but their souls are still greater.* 
Who elicited from Seneca the exclamation: 'Who is braver than the Germans'?' 
Of whom Sidonius declares: 'Death alone subdues them, not fear.' Of whom 
Lucanus, the Roman poet, wrote: 'Liberty is the Germans' birthright.' And the 
Roman Historian Florus: 'It is a privilege which nature has granted to the Ger- 
mans, and which the Greeks, with all their art, knew not how^ to obtain.' And 
Montesquieu: 'Liberty, that lovely thing, was discovered in the wild forests of 
Germany.' And Hume, England's greatest historian: 'If our part of the world 
maintain sentiments of liberty, honor, equity, and valor, superior to the rest of 
mankind, it owes these advantages to the seeds planted by those generous bar- 
barians.' 

"As half-naked tribes, they crushed degenerate Rome and rendered the true 
civilization of virtue based on simple compliance with nature's laws possible. 
They helped destroy the Hunnish hosts of Atilla on the plains of Chalons, and, to 
quote the historian Cressy, 'preserved for centuries of power and glory the Ger- 
manic element in the civilization of modern Europe.' Aye, Karl Martel and his 
Franks at Tours crushed Saracen Abderrahman and saved Europe from Moham- 
medan rule." 

All this in barbarous times. 

Later came Luther, Goethe, the immortal Artists and Musicians, and chief of 
all, the mighty Scientists. 

Coming to the present (largely utilizing Von Frantzius' fine marshalling of 
German scientific achievement) : Coming to warfare which (rather than the 
printing press) is in the very latest analysis, the art preservative of all arts, we 
find the Krupp 30-Cm. Howitzers, and the all-leveling 42-Cm. Gun; Special tur- 
rets for ships; torpedoes that have the world guessing (it does seem strange when 
we ask how many English warships Germans have submarined and how many 
German ships the English have); and the Mauser rifle; and the Mauser revolver 
that kills a mile; and the Zepplins, and three other dirigibles, one of them 
(the militaerschij]') a secret; and numerous superior aeroplanes; and a metal 
lighter than aluminum said to be used on the Zeppelins; and others to be sprung 
as occasion requires. 

The greatest concrete discovery in modern times w^as the theory of the cellular 
structure of all organic life by Schwann and Schleiden. Next to it, in fact a log- 
ical corollary of it, was the glorious discovery by Virchow of cellular pathology. 
Koch pioneered in Bacteriology; Liebig, Agricultural Chemistry — also the carbon 
compounds, chloroform, etc. Behring discovered the diphtheria serum, Ehrlich, 
Salvarsan (many an ex-syphilitic now howling against 'Them damned Germans,* 
would be today howling in loathsome agony or fdling a leprous grave but for the 
German, Ehrlich.) Billroth revolutionized modern surgery. Perhaps we shouldn't 
mention any living savants, because there are such troops of them as to require 
volumes; but it surely cannot be invidious to mention Haeckel, whom, however 
much we may differ with him as to certain dogmas, we all recognize as the brav- 
est living thinker and writer, besides being one of the greatest scientists of any 
age, having to his credit original discovery of laws of the Universe; and Ostwald, 
the expositor of biological catalysis. 

Coming to the purely physical and mechanical: Bunsen and Wachler in- 
vented aluminum; Roentgen discovered the X-ray; Hertz, the electro-magnetic 
wave, rendering discovery of wireless telegraphy possible; Siemens invented the 
modern dynamo, type telegraphy, also the electric street car, also discovered how 
to locate ocean-cable-breaks, also invented insulators for telegraph poles. Von 
Guericke invented the air pump. Germans invented the Pintsch light and Tungsten 
light and Wellsbach burner, and the (Nernst) incandescent lamps, and the rail- 



TO GERMAN AMERICANS. 191 

way wheel box; and (Koeiiig) the modern steam printing press; and (Mergen- 
thaler) the typesetting machine; and (Edward Reis) the telephone, (on which 
Bell simply made, at best, only a technical improvement) ; and (Daimler) the 
modern gas engine, without which automobiles and aeroplanes, etc. would not 
be feasible; and the photographic lens for speed and motion photography, and 
the other wonderful lenses; and (Diesel) the revolutionizing oil engine; and the 
glass furnace and open hearth furnace. 

Coming to minor but still important cultural items, Germany leads in "high 
standard of hygienic and sanitary conditions, cleanliness, scientific manufactur- 
ing of foodstuffs and drugs, high standard of modern utilities such as water sys- 
tems, lighting, transportation, expedient telegraph and telephone service, laws of 
order and safety towards protection of life and welfare of its people in all its 
branches, as public thoroughfares and gathering places, insurances, pensions, in- 
valid funds, etc., high standard of schools and general institutions of learning in 
all arts and sciences, as well as finance and commerce, small percentage of il- 
literates, high moral standard as a nation, ethic — honorable character (not to 
spread constant lies in war and in times of peace), humanity, especially in war- 
fare (not to gouge out soldiers' eyes) and the way to treat prisoners; certain dig- 
nity as a nation in curbing the black and yellow races, sufficient pride and self 
control of a white nation not to antagonize the yellow race against the white in 
an effort to annihilate a white nation, principles of highest honor, efficiency in 
agricultural production, discoveries, inventions, developments of same, up-to-date 
conveniences in country and city life, ways and means to keep down pauperism 
(slums) and people from starving, protection of the aged and invalids, ability to 
compete with foreign trade, protection of international laws as to patents and 
copyrights (no violation of same), court justice to give equal protection to the 
poor as well as the rich, etc., comfort in traveling and living, good hotels and eat- 
ing places at moderate prices, hygienic and healthy cooking;" and a thousand other 
accessories for progressive and comfortable and hence correct living; aye, a thous- 
and other accessories for the comfort and progress of the human race. But, 
pshaw I what's the use; — your superior and austere monitor has gone to sleep 
while you were monotonously enumerating. You wake him. He starts almost 
petulantly. "Ah," he exclaims, "you again? Why will you so stupidly persist? 
I try to be patient; but you tax my forbearance to the limit. You make my task 
hard for me. You make it difficult for me to keep England convinced of our ab- 
solute sympathy with her." 

That is our attitude, generally, German-Ameircans, and we are thoroughly 
honest in it . We've heard about these things you tell us, or a few of them; but 
they have no meaning for us. We even see going on right now events of tremend- 
ous import; but they make no impression on us. We simply see them; but utterly 
without proportion or perspective; hence, without the slightest appreciation of 
their real value. We've been taught that way; led along by shrewdly calculated 
psychological processes. 

So you see how helpless your case is. Whoever you are and whatever you 
do, we just simply don't know you and can't see you as you are. 

And that, too, after you have been here with us more than a hundred years; 
have helped fight our battles, and pay our taxes, and develop our resources. It 
must be, indeed, a revelation to you to learn at last our real attitude. 

It is one of those psychological paradoxes we so often come across. We are 
simply hypnotized by English influences. They have been at work on us for years 
and they have finally put us into the trance. A hypnotized man can't see any- 
thing, or, if he sees it, can't grasp its real meaning. That is our trouble, brothers 
of German blood. Nearly every man on earth would, where he feels sure he has no 
adverse interest at stake, like to always see the right prevail, and, if it cost him 
little to do so, would like to join in the movement. And I believe our thoughtless, 
happy-go-lucky, average American, is really a better-hearted creature than the 
average of any other country except those of pure Teutonic or Celtic blood. (And 
the Teutons and Celts were probably the same back in the fog of anthropology.) 
So the thing to do is to unhypnotize us. We will all come right in the long run. 
The trance is beginning to wear off a little now. One trouble (speaking in the 
terms of the irony of expediency) is that you people have been entirely too unself- 



192 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

assertive, too modest, too decent, too utterly gentlemanly, so to speak, in your per- 
sonal community relations. For instance, in this medium-sized city, where all sorts 
of upstarts, both social and commercial, have their names blazoned every day in 
box-car letters in our papers: — in this typical city, there are hundreds of superb 
Germans and Austrians, men of great culture, great industry, great everything that 
goes to make the best citizenship : artists, musicians, engineers of all kinds, archi- 
tects, educators, scholars, scientists; and yet, in all these years, not one of them 
has ever had his name prominently in the papers except one, an excellent civil en- 
gineer who, being a former citizen of Schleswig-Holstein, felt constrained, (when 
an able and highly misinformed Englishman, in the public prints charged that 
Germany seized that territory without warrant or the approval of the inhabitants 
of those provinces), to deal the deluded gentleman a crushing reply, though in 
the most scholarly and decorous terms. 

That's the reason we don't know^ you gentlemen. What we hear of you is: 
"Them damned Germans," spoken in every case of Jew merchants, usually Russian 
at that, and 99 times out of 100, better men than the Gentile trader who denounces 
them solely because they out-traded him and beat him at his own game. The av- 
erage American actually thinks that all Jews are Germans and very nearly all 
Germans are Jews. 



THE MATERIALIST. 



But, there are multitudes of us amenable to educational influences. So, keep 
all your valuable educational agencies still going. There is one class I must 
mention that seems to be growing very numerous and likewise influential in 
America, even as it has long been in England and hybridized or Latinized coun- 
tries. You can hope for nothing from them. 

Prof. Sanborn had this class in mind when he wrote: 

"The materialist, because he knows of nothing worth fighting for, will forever 
be astounded to lind in his pathway heroes whom he cannot be expected to under- 
stand. Their motives can never appeal to one for whom the joys of the belly (for 
himself and for the larger whole of society) are the paramount aims of civiliza- 
tion." 

It is a class hfghly endowed or cultivated in the Intellectual, or second great 
sub-division of Organic Evolution, and wholly lacking in, (in fact not even sens- 
ing the existence of) the Spiritual, or, third phase of Evolution, into the dawn 
of wdiich humanity is now entering. Of course, I don't mean at all to argue that 
the wiiole spiritual realm is known. At present we have but three tangible differ- 
entiations of it from the physical and mental, and they are obvious only because 
they seem (to some) to run counter to the well recognized general law of physical 
and mental evolution, known as the law of Struggle or Competition. These three 
exceptional spiritual phenomena are, in ascending order: 1st. Individual Mor- 
ality, or strict, personal observance of the laws of Nature, involving the suppres- 
sion of lower instincts or impulses. 2nd. Altruism, or sincere regard for all 
others outside of one's own self, family, and friends, or general environment. 3rd. 
Vicarious Idealism, or willingness to sacrifice for lofty abstract Ideals. The Ger- 
man average in this marvelous third Evolution is easily the greatest in the world. 
It was manifest to close investigators long ago. Emerson said: "Hence, almost 
all the distinctions which are current in higher conversation have been derived 
to us from Germany." 

Thomas Carlyle said: "It is appointed that Germany is to be the leader of 
spiritual Europe." 

Now, to understand this Spiritual Evolution, one must possess it. Those 
who do not, think it is simply an obsession on the part of those who claim to sense 
it or to possess it. Many of these skeptics have the very highest endowment of the 
purely Intellectual, and by intense cultivation add very greatly to their large nat- 
ural mental equipment. England is lousy with such: the Kiplings, Doyles, Parkers, 
Chestertons, Bennetts, et id omne genus, ad nauseam. They possess no obsessions 
(as they would preen themselves) but they know the obsessions of others, and 
play on them accordingly. For instance, Kipling in his exquisite Recessional in- 



TO GERMAN-AMERICANS. ' 193 

troduced that sublime spiritual conception : "Lest we forget, lest we forget," and 
yet, in a jiffy he about-faced and joined the brutal Rhodes in the crusade against 
the Boers. But his beautiful product "Lest we forget," went to the spot all right, 
found response in myriads of really honest spirits, and brought Kipling exactly 
v/hat he most desired: pelf and fame. The English call this cleverness, and all 
their scribes affect it. It is by utilizing this cunning faculty that they start a war 
fever whenever the Bureauocracy wisii it in England, which fact Shaw pictured 
when he said: "England never wants for a moral attitude." And we have herds 
of such cattle in America. In fact, most of our penny-a-liners who essay to edu- 
cate us, are that sort. They have learned to string words together somewhat gram- 
matically and dramatically, and that is enough. It is a saying in America that 
human brains are cheaper than hog brains. Our American Intellectual Non-Spir- 
itual (so to speak) is not quite up to his fellow-fakir of England, whom he tries 
to copy. But he does fairly well in his chosen profession. The truth is, with our 
modern facilities, the most mediocre mind, almost anyone too lazy to work on the 
farm where he belongs, can, by dint of assiduous study for a season, learn to 
write in a catchy, or even really dramatic way. 

For instance: Collier's, the Contemptible; Collier's the literary parasite and 
pirate that founded its fortune upon 5-ft. bookshelves of great old productions 
unprotected by copyright; who, pretending to universal purity, damns certain 
grape-juices and saw-dusts and recommends others; who, affecting political moral- 
ity, consistently strive to undermine brave spirits who are struggling to effectu- 
ate great political reforms — this craven, loathsome Collier's recently had a man 
of the above English ilk in Germany. He writes really almost entrancingly. He 
draws an accurate photograph that gives us ecstatic joy; and yet he himself 
doesn't know a single character represented in it. He couldn't even give it a cor- 
rect title. Hear him: 

"The first thing I saw in war-time Germany was a small cylindrical box labeled: 'Geben 
ze dem.' There seemed to be a certain subdued and reverent feeling- in the very atmosphere. 
I felt as if I had just steppd into an old cathdral. ... I dropped &ouie coins noisily Into 
the little box. 

" 'Say,' my companion added, as if it were an afterthought, setting down his suit cases 
and fumbling in his trousers pocket; 'will you put that in for me?' He thrust a coin into my 
hand and walked away. 

"I pushed the money into the slit in the top of the little box. As it left my fingers, I saw 
a glint of yellow. He had given me a ten-mark gold piece! * * * * 

" 'I feel as if today were Sunday.' 

" 'Well, it isnt.' 

" 'But doesn't this country give you a sort of 'Sunday feeling'? — as if most of the people 
had gone to church? Look at those old fellows, those "Landsur" soldiers — professors, and 
doctors, and business men — standing guard in the railway stations in their old blue uniforms, 
with coats too large so they can fill them out when they grow fat. They're quiet as priests. 
And have you noticed that there aren't any horses visible? They're all in use — taking the 
people to church.' 

" 'To war, you mean" he retorted. 'The horses are with the army.' 

" 'But look there,' I retorted. 'People are at church. See? — there in that brick chapel 
behind the box hedge. See? Oh, my God, it's a funeral!" 

"At every station women from the Red Cross came to meet the soldiers with hot bouillon^ 
hot coffee, stretchers, and ambulances; and at almost every station we picked up new re- 
cruits, mostly officers just being called to the colors, invariably accompanied by friends, who 
cheered them, and called 'Bravo! bravo! congratulations!' As the train pulled out of the 
station. In Hanover, two women who seemed to be mother and wife of a young hussar just 
going to the front, were at the station to see him off. The mother's fingers clawed holes in 
the handkerchief she held in her hand to wave when her boy left her, and the wife's lips 
trembled as she tried to say the happy nothings which would be everything in the world to 
her soldier in the field. They smiled to the vei-y last minute, and when the train started 
and the young officer leaned far out of the window, smiling back at them and waving his 
handkerchief, they shouted after him: 'Congratulations! congratulations! God bless you! 
congratulations!' They were congratulating him on his chance to die for Germany. 

"There was an air of heroic happiness about the whole train. Every time another train 
passed us we were cheered and waved at; the car windows would fly open, men, women, and 
even children would lean out, calling, waving their handkerchiefs, and smiling — always smil- 
ing. Two troop trains went by us, westbound, and their loud hurrahs were electric with feel- 
ing. Little boys dressed in diminutive uniforms, even to spiked helmets and miniature 



194 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

swords, leaned from the windows of houses to shake German flags in salute; and little six 
and seven-year-old girls called to us shrilly as we went by. It was a continuous ovation for 
the men. To come home wounded was to come in triumph, and ether and bandages and pain- 
ful mutilations were forgotten in the high joy of such a welcome. 

"Porters, forty-five, fifty- sixty years old, hobbled about gathering up the luggage. Red 
■Cross workers crowded up to take charge of the wounded. It was a crowd shifting like quick- 
silver, and every face smiling. Even the sixteen-year-old "Madchen" in charge of the news 
stand laid down her knitting to watch. (Every woman in Germany is knitting for the sol- 
diers; even seven-year-old girls knit as they rock their dollies to sleep.) 

"Among the first to leap down from the train was a tall Prussian uhlan on furlough. He 
had been fighting under Von Hindenburg in the east and Von Kluck in the west, he told me. 
■'Such luck!' as he expressed it. He bounded to the platform like an athlete, although I knew 
he was wounded; stood stiff for a moment; clicked his heels; saluted with that abrupt me- 
chanical snap of the forearm which is the perfection of impersonal, unemotional recognition; 
then flung his arms out like a little boy about the shoulders of a splendid gray-bearded giant 
in general's uniform, and kissed him like a girl. 

"The nineteen-year-old boy wore over his heart the famous Iron Cross of 1914. The man 
lie kissed wore the Iron Cross of 1870-'71. 

"In Germany today the army is the people; it is the race, the mob, the manhood of the 
nation. A phonograph factory turns out shrapnel shells; a farming machinery company makes 
.gun carriages; the clothing trades turn out nothing but uniforms and other military supplies; 
life insurance companies loan money on policies in order that the holders may give it to the 
"Kriegsanleihe" ; the canning factories all have been taken over by the government; the pal- 
ace where the Reichstag meets is headquarters for the Red Cross and is thronged every day 
with East Prussian refugees who have been driven from their homes by the advancing hordes 
of Cossacks; churches and schoolhouses and hotels are hospitals; railroads are highways for 
the armies; all books now published are upon the war, and all tracts, newspapers, and mag- 
azines. 

"One gives, and gives, and gives. That is the spirit of war time in Germany— the spirit of 
-complete giving, the spirit which oversubscribes huge war loans and c'ercrowds the ranks 
of the volunteers; the spirit of humble self-sacrifice which has so often upset the plans of 
oautious and cynical leaders of men. I confess I cannot understand it. That Socialists should 
march with Junkers, Jews with anti-Semites, and Poles with Prussians — that is the miracle 
of miracles to the "man on the street" in Berlin. And it amazes the whole world for that 
matter. This last and greatest crusade shows that the age of miiracles is not past. 

"On July 20 "Voerwarts" was lecturing General van Falkenhayn on the villanies of Prus,- 
:sian militarism; on September 2 it received from the hands of this same General von Falken- 
hayn permission to circulate among the soldiers. Between these two dates there had been a 
revolution in Germany; but not the kind of revolution wliich the leaders of German Socialism 
had expected. Something had broken loose against which recalcitrant spirit struggled in vain. 

"Hundreds of movements are dead, and hundreds of thousands of men are dead. The 
war is a holocaust. The whole nation is bleeding. For what? I do not know." 

And yet, this crass creature can't understand it. Right in the midst of the 
sublimest spiritual manifestation of all the ages; (the sublimest, because the most 
intelligent and unanimous) a manifestation of the highest phase of the Spiritual 
Evolution; where every living soul is making all possible heroic sacrifices and 
trying to think up new ones; where raw boys come back still singing though 
bleeding at wounds received while, with a song on their lips, they went like young 
gods against rapid firing machine guns; where little lisping girls spend their 
play time knitting socks for the soldiers; where mothers with blanching faces 
stifle their sobs before the dreadful bulletin boards as they divinely say: "God's 
Avill be done — I only wish I had a dozen more to give." Yet right in the thick of 
it, this carnalist looks on and for the life of him can't decipher it. Right where 
converge innumerable sympathetic spiral clouds reaching to Heaven of all the 
white winged spirits that have blessed the earth: Abraham, David, Confucius, 
Christ, Plato, Savonarola, Luther, Wesley, and all their followers; — this quintes- 
sent materialist sees not, neither does he hear. While all heaven is hosannahing 
with glad acclaim and tintinnabulating with all its joy—bells rung by the "spirits 
of just men made perfect on high," this sordid sensualist simply feels that "some- 
thing is stirring. It's "all Dutch" to him. 

He knows that something strange (as he views it, something very uncanny) 
is in the air; but even while quadrillions of Angels brush him with their wings, 
or fly clear through the vast pores of his gross physical and mental cells and inter- 
cells, he merely thinks the atmosphere is thicker and he may catch cold. 



TO GERMAN-AMERICANS. 195 

PATIENCE PAST ALL UNDERSTANDING. 

German-Americans, God knows you have been patient "past all understand- 
ing." You have watched your Friends, Cousins, Uncles, Brothers, Fathers, Sons 
blown to death or spattered in the air by American explosives, guns, and dum- 
dums, with a self restraint unequalled in all the annals of the Ages. God knows 
you have borne enough— much more than anybody ought to have to bear in this 
world. You have had to listen in dignified silence while street-loafers gloatingly 
urged the assassination of the revered ruler of your great people; while this great 
and noble people, your own people, your Friends, Cousins, Uncles, Brothers, 
Fathers, Sons were traduced, lampooned, villified to the last limit by heartless 
hoodlums and soulless scribes, all unworthy to latch your shoes; while they were 
called fools by the alimonious Elberts and Huns by such fictionistic frauds as 
Arnold, Bennett, Chesterton, and Doyle, and such literary mountebanks as 
Kipling; while your own dear blood were being butchered by every species of 
black-and-tan hellion ever spewed over this planet; while your kinsmen saw their 
little children spitted on fence picketings, aye, while your Sweethearts, Sisters, 
Mothers were being raped by hell-fired Cossacks; yea, (God in Heaven hear it!) 
while this devil's own orgy of slaughter and rape of your loved ones was helped 
and hastened by explosives, guns, and dum-dums "made in America!" 

And, just to think! all this time you were AMERICANS. So, all this time it 
was AMERICANS whose cousins, brothers, fathers, sons by the thousands in Ger- 
many who were being slain and mutilated by ammunition, guns and dum-dums» 
"Made in America;" it was AMERICANS, I tell you, whose Cousins, Uncles, Broth- 
ers, Fathers and Sons were and are slaughtered and squshed by America, our own 
country, simply to fatten Charlie Schwab and give Oily Andy additional unearned 
increment for prating of Peace and vaporing about "Good will toward men," and 
further subsidizing our press, pulpit, and platform to preach our speedy national 
suicide by not taking proper measures for self-defense. 

Yes, AMERICANS, — but only GERMAN-Americans. If the personal friends. 
Cousins, Uncles, Brothers, Fathers, Sons, of 25,000,000 of any of the rest of us 
Americans were being slaughtered and squshed by American-made guns and 
dum-dums, or the rape of their sweethearts, nieces, sisters, daughters, wives, and 
mothers by hellish Cossacks or black-and-tan monsters were being facilitated by 
their being furnished these nuu'der tools by Americans — what a howl it would 
raise; how our blood would fairly foam! But, not so, when it is your friends 
and loved ones, German-Americans. If you even dared groan aloud in human 
agony, a hundred heartless papers were ready to brutally denounce you as un- 
American, aye, as traitors to America. 

You can't blow up those gun and powder and dum-dum factories and thus 
save our Cousins, Uncles, Brothers, Fathers, and Sons, Sweethearts, Nieces, Aunts, 
Sisters, Daughters, Wives, Mothers, (though it would be fully humanly justified); 
for, a German is for law and order. You can't call down from their high position 
the hynotized contingent who now rule America and permit this slaughtering and 
spattering, by American ammunition, guns, and dum-dums. They gloze along in 
a mesmeric trance, claiming to fear to run counter to an English-made technical 
off-shoot of an absolutely archaic ramshackle; a never-binding, non-enforceable, 
utterly illusory, nonentity called International Law. These hypnotized, ossified 
brains without elasticity enough to become adjusted to even the smallest iota of 
new development, haven't intellectual spontanity enough to understand or ap- 
preciate what the Neutrality they constantly yawp about actually is. They don't 
realize that neutrality means absolute neiiherncss— HELPING OR HURTING 
NEITHER. Hence, they think (or at least pretend to) that when our ammunition 
guns, and dum-dums HELP the English and French, the fiendish Cossacks, and 
every kind of hirable hellion the world can spew up for the piebalds, and HURT, 
aye slaughter, yea, sqush, the quivering flesh, the throbbing hearts, and all the 
precious life organs of the loved ones of 25,000,000 good, American citizens — I 
say they claim it is all right — it preserves American NEUTRALITY. Great God! 
And yet these creatures have the brazen affrontery to flaunt themselves before us 
and try to teach us! How astounding it must seem to you, that your fellow-country- 
men don't sympathize with such a tremendous sympathy-demanding element of 



196 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

their fellow-citizens, particularly when we've all got to continue living on right 
liere together! How seemingly inexplicable that they should wish to see England 
crush Germany: England a country that twice tried to strangle America when 
young and weak; that today don't want America to have her part of the commerce 
of the world; that has joined with the Cossack and Slav, and Jap — and has hired 
all earth's available black-and-tan hellions to slaughter their German kin — how 
inconceivable that fellow-Americans should wish to see this England with so few 
of here people living here, crush and subjugate Germany though the process in- 
volve the slaughter, both by blood-let and starvation of multi-millions of your 
Mnspeople! Of course, it can be explained only on the hypothesis of our sincere 
belief in the fact that you are a much inferior type. So feels ^Yilson. So feels 
Bryan — the last with intensified perfervor, since his daughter married an English 
Captain. 

This being true, German-Americans, what are you going to do about it? 

Friends, having already shown a patience passing Moses and Job, I know you 
\vill bear with me if I presume to make a few suggestions. 

In the first place don't waste time on any except the Worth-Whiles. The other 
sort you can't get, and if you had them they would do you more harm than good. 
I mean the hoodlams^ and riff'-raff. 

Doi^'t-temporize or palaver with the namby-pambies. . Don't waste intellectual 
or spiritual ammunition on them; — nor on the preten^o^is dilf'ttantes. Let the 
branders keep on blathering and the Jewetts mathering; and the parvenu "per- 
fessers," like gnats after eagles, tackling German immortals, their highest hope to 
have the hoodlum plaudit: '*dat's de guy wot jumped on old Haeckel and Eucken." 
These worthies are bigger today than they will ever be again. Henceforth, they 
will grow more and more negligible to the vanishing point. 

Don't bandy epithets or ethics with holier-than-thou hucksters of hypocrisy 
or self-anointed Sacrosancsters with souls so small they could creep into a five- 
foot book shelf, and rattle uncannily. Promptly repudiate henceforth all such 
forces as the Elliott-Schiff make-Schift. 

It may have grown better toward the end; but I could only stomach the first 
few installments, when I sickened and stopped. As I saw it, the attitude of 
Schifty Schiff, was about this: "O most wonderful Oracle and Master, graciously 
condescend to let this awful war stop; true, it is sacrilegious, even impious in me 
to presume to address you, however worshipfully; but, since you so justly and 
mercifully direct that in order to properly fetch the War-Lord to his senses, a few 
million of his innocent dolts should be slaughtered, 0, consent to a limit of, say, 
three and one-half millions. 0, Justly Wrathful at my presumption — let me re- 
tract — let them all be slaughtered, aye dum-dummed! — only slay me not by driv- 
ing me away. Smite me and kick me, but let me stay. As I sprawl upon my belly, 
let me lick your sacred shoes." 

It is enough to make a real German exclaim: tempora, O mores, O HADES I 

For God's sake let's have an end to such seances! I don't want to be too sus- 
picious, but I suggest that all of thes^ Correspondents-of-the-Coin be watched 
rather gingerly. 

Quit wasting time bewailing that Americans don't understand the German 
psychology or temperament or viewpoint. The German psychology is no differ- 
ent from any other soul— ology. All good peoples are alike in their spiritual make- 
up. The trouble with nearly all of us Americans, not merely the good but all 
others as well, is that we didn't know anything about Germany, and hence, about 
Germans, when the war started. It is just simply lamentable, shameful, sodden, 
cursed ignorance on our part, and it is hard to educate us now. After partisan 
prejudice and passion start; after men begin to wax hot in argument with their 
neighbors; after the pride of opinion|^ aroused, farewell to reason and discrimi- 
nation, with even the best minds and souls. 



UP AND AT THEM! 



Don't argue with the politicians, those who have an antipathy for you. The 
best of us are prejudiced against you. .JVhile this attitude \\wuld, humanly speak- 



TO GERMAN-AMERICANS. 197 

ing, give you the logical right to regard us as monsters of ingratitude, prodigies 
of colossal cruelty and callous-heartedness; yet as above-explained, such is really 
not our case. Our trouble is simply stark, row, sodden, crass, unmitigated ignor- 
ance of Germany and the Germans. True we SHOULD know, but we don't; we 
have all the facilities but not the faculties; we haven't the breadth or elasticity of 
vision or the faculty of co-ordination to use our vision right. Even our pedantic 
President is as blind as a bat when looking at you. He knew nothing of you 
when the war started. In order to appear versatile, he took down his Encyc. 
Brit, to "get a line" on Germany. He noddingly glimpsed it over for, say, half 
an hour, trying to decipher whether Bach discoverd tuberculosis or is a brand of 
beer, and whether Virchow was a German General or a Dutch Landscape Painter, 
and Schwann was the bird he saw at the opera in Lohengrin. I dare say that, 
although a University President, he couldn't speak the German language fluently, 
and that, although he pours out sluices of English words he doesn't know right 
now that the strongest of them are of German origin. He has heard of Luther and 
what he did, but he don't KNOW; that is he doesn't appreciate the tremendous 
significance of it all: He doesn't know that but for Luther there wouldn't be a 
Protestant in the world — he himself would not be an unctuous blue-stocking. If 
you reminded him, he would unlimber his casuistry batteries and contend that 
even if Luther hadn't done it some Anglo-Saxon would — and be oi^livious of the 
fact that both the Angles and Saxons were pure German. ** 

His picture of Paradise is to be of a bunch of asthmatic English and Scotch 
pedants, and, oh, heaven, if one of them should be a lord! all slim-legged and 
sunken-paunched from their cellular development having run to elongation rather 
than symmetry, and some of them hollow-cheeked from inherited non-cellulation 
due to lack of proper pabulum, cooking, or fresh air in unnecessarily abstemious 
ancestors; all sitting in a stuffy lit'r'y club room, each, with a copy of the Saturday 
Review; each talking phthisically, out over his Adam's apple, arguing over vacu- 
ities, splitting hairs of nothingness into ten thousand fibrils, with infinite inter- 
lardings of ifs, buts, althoughs, neverthelesses, etc., which they think signify deli- 
cate discriminations — and all with such elegant decorousness, don't you know, 
such polite acknowledgment of each other's several superiorities over the crude 
outside w^orld, and with such superb self constraint in withholding their own 
sundry super-excellencies over each other. 

Of course, gentlemen, his case is hopeless for you from the standpoint of mere 
Logic and reason. But there is a way. Don't waste your time arguing with him. 
He sees it all, anyhow, but with distorted vision; he couldn't see it right if he 
would; his eyes behold, but without correlation, proportion, or perspective; — all 
due to an INCURABLE ENGLISH CATARACT OVER HIS EYE. But there is a 
way to reach him. 

He was a fairly good citizen, above the average, until the political bug got in 
his ear. There was never any depth to him, of course; he had, though a good heart, 
and a catchy way of stringing words together. He knew nothing of Philosophy 
or Science; but it was easy to make tho^e who knew even less than he did think 
he was a philosopher instead of a mere pedant. If he were not President he would 
be writing sluices of stuff today against the Germans — honestly, too — simply be- 
cause he has been Anglo-hypnotized. When one already hopelessly intellectually 
auto-intoxicated becomes Anglo-hypnotized in addition, see what you are up 
against. 

You can't reach him intellectually, gentlemen. His brain is ossified. There is 
only one way. Wilson is a politician — a higher grade than the average, but a 
politician still. He wants to be President again. Like Macbeth: 

"What he would highly, that would he holily." 
But if he can't get it holily, he'll take it ^y way he can get it — even to the mur- 
der of Duncan. Like the crafty old man wdio advised his son: "Get money, my 
son; honestly, my son, always honestly; but, of course, if you can't get it hon- 
estly,— why, "my son— GET MONEY!" 

Besides, Wilson is all the more impervious to the moral argument because of 

possessing that perverse puritanical psychology of thinking its own interest is 

always right even when he knows it to be absolutely wrong. But, since he is 

such a politician, s«ch a regulation ear-|p-the-ground-er, make vibrations that he 

'» • •• 



198 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

will hear. MAKE him do what's right. Let him know that if he don't it will be a 
case of "Goodbye, old yellowleg." Don't let him keep yawping about how neutral 
we are. Make him BE neutral. Make him drop his present neutrality which is 
simply neutrality to the murder of Germans by American guns and dum-dums. 

A ventriloquist saw an old darkey coming along the road proudly carrying a 
fine turtle just taken from the creek. Jumping unseen behind a clump of bushes, 
he made the turtle, as the old man passed by, say: "Unc Isicks, wut you gwine do 
wid me?" "Huh," ejaculated Uncle Isaac, with a trace of perturbation. "I axed 
you, Unc Isicks, what you gwine do wid me?" rather plaintively urged the turtle. 
"Huh, chile, what dat you say?" queried the old man with bulging eyes, but still 
swinging stolidly to his prize. "Unc Isicks, dis ain't no common turkle you's 
totin' by de tail. Now, I done ax you twice, an' I ain' gwine ax you but dis one 
time mo'; 'wut you gwine do wid me'?" 

"I gwine drap you right here, honey," fairly shrieked the old man as he cut 
a bee-line for the next township. 

Start at the tip top, gentlemen. Go after the President first. He thinks right 
at this moment that you are utterly negligible; that you are comparatively few in 
numbers; badly scattered as to effective voting; and indifferent to voting anyhow. 
He thinks that merely as a matter of form, to kinder keep up appearances, you will 
feel constrained to meet together occasionally and in a perfunctory way resolute 
a lot and indignate a little, and then it's all over, just like his own alleged "Pro- 
tests" to England when she insults us or seizes our ships and steals our goods. 

Jar the earth and wierdly thrill the air. Make our precious old President 
politician with his on-ear to the ground and his off-ear to the air hear sounds so 
sepulchral that he will know that this "ain't no common neutrality turkle he is 
totin' by de tail," and make him "drap it right now." 

Let him distinctly understand that if he doesn't stack up to the full measure 
of his duty, every vote that Germans or their connections or their sympathizers 
can muster or iniluence will be thrown along the most effective possible lines 
against him. 

Fortunately he has a fad for you to play on. He makes great pretensions to 
intellectual elasticity, spontaneity, initiative. He prates of the New Freedom. He 
even borrowed a sensible currency system from Germany. (But that was McAdoo's 
stunt.) At any rate he is constantly striving to pull off something that can be 
known as the Wilson Doctrine or Idea, as in his Mobile speech. Give him a title 
to the new doctrine of true neutrality. He ought to know what real neutrality is, 
anyhow. He is bound to it — by his own claims and conduct. He demanded that 
nobody even talk about the war. He suggested that we all simultaneously pray 
for the war to stop, on the assumption that a Neutral's prayer might avail with 
God. So, in fine, he ought to know what the neutrality he so glibly and volubly 
professes, actually is. But he don't. For seven months he has let the Schwabs, 
and such like, make ammunition, guns, and dum-dums to blow out the souls 
and spatter the bodies of the Friends, Cousins, Uncles, Brothers, Fathers, and 
Sons of 25,000,000 American citizens without one word of protest. His tech- 
nical brain suggested that Charlie Schwab had better not make submarines, 
which could only slaughter a few thousand at most; but he could make indef- 
inite explosives, guns, and dum-dums with which to slaughter and sqush hun- 
dreds of thousands. No need to argue logically with such a psychology. He is 
deaf as a post. Like the dear old granddaddy who, during a spring storm, when 
the house rocked from a clap of thunder so terrific it seemed to burst the very uni- 
verse in two, gleefully, with the unctuous joy of discovery exclaimed: "First 
robin I've heard this spring." Wilson can't even hear that sort of robin of mere 
reason. But he will hear if you say: "We have 5,000,000 pledged votes, and we 
suggest that you initiate a new doctrine to be called the American Doctrine, to read 
thus: 'No nmnitions of war whatsoever, made in America, shall in time of any war 
in which America is not engaged be shipped by sea or land to any country en- 
gaged in said war.' In that doctrine, we will be actually and absolutely neutral, 
and cannot incur the just enmity of any nation or individual on earth." 



TO GERMAN-AMERICANS. 199 

THE MATHEMATICS OF IT 

In fine, gentlemen, there is no hope for you among our hoodlums, our intel- 
lectual fossils, or our spiritual troglodytes under oridnary psychological condi- 
tions. But it lies in your power to create an extraordinary situation which will 
enable you to handle quite a large contingent of them. 

When I began the prose part of this book some 80 days ago I wrote: "German- 
Americans, to accomplish anything you've got to organize." And behold, youVe 
beaten me to it. You've started organizing before I could get my book published. 
Keep it up, gentlemen, keep it up! Don't be afraid of the press. They've already 
shot their bolt. They can never harm you or your cause more than they have al- 
ready done. Henceforth, their performances should merely make you smile and 
enable you to spot them. Lots of 'em who threw you a sop occasionally while 
they deemed you harmless, were merely playing on you like a llute. Now, they 
villify you, when you try to form an America-for-Americans organization. 

And, let me tell you: there are a whole lot of us who will gladly join your 
organization who haven't a drop of German blood in us except what we got from 
the old Angles and Saxons. 

As Dr. Walter S. McNeil so pointedly says: 

"American opinion from the beginning has by no means been unanimous. It is evident 
that Americans of German extraction, though even remotely; that those of Scandinavian de- 
scent; from the anti-English Irish element; that those who have known the Russian knout, 
and that that comparatively small, but influential, group of Americans who were really edu- 
cated in Germany are all rather a compact phalanx in favor of Teutonic culture as contrasted 
with that of some of its would-be destroyers." 

If it be true that, first and last, 9,000,000 of you emigrated from Germany 
here, there must be today in America at least 60,000,000 citizens with some Ger- 
man blood in their veins. Of these, probably, 35,000,000 are not aware of it. 
(For instance, take the large, non-German-sounding family name, Tice. It was 
originally Theiss, and was changed out of complaisance to surroundings.) But, 
there are probably 25,000,000 who know they have German blood and who, even 
where partially hybridized, are not ashamed of their German blood. 

Therefore, you must have something like 3,500,000 qualified voters as a start- 
er. The first thing is to qualify all who are not qualified. If they won't qualify 
and seize their one and only w^eapon, the vote, all their maunderings won't be 
worth a baubee. A citizen without a vote is like a one-legged man at a kicking 
match. You can increase this to 5,000,000 by qualifying the unqualified eligibles. 
You can add to that 1,000,000 Irish sympathizers and 500,000 of the rest of us. 
That gives you 6,500,000 to operate on as a starter. With that, properly direct- 
ed, you ought to swing the world. 

So organize, gentlemen. It is your only hope, but it is a cinch. 

Voting time is coming on apace. The clock is striking. Up! Assert your- 
selves I Most miraculously have you held your hearts in leash and bided your 
time. And the time has come. No longer plead or ask. Henceforth demand I 
Listen at this challenge from George Sylvester Vierick to the Tory Press: 

"You have called our brothers by the vilest names, blown to you from the gutters of Lon- 
don. You have spat upon the memory of our mothers. You have trampled upon the graves 
of our fathers. You have sown the storm, you shall reap the whirlwind. You have refused 
to listen to our reasoning. You were deaf to our pleas. Now the ballot shall speak for us. 
We shall go into the arena of politics. We shall try to beat you at your own game. One hun- 
dred and seventy members of Congress are of Irish extraction. There is no reason why they 
should not be joined by one hundred and seventy of German extraction. There is no reason 
why should we not labor for the election of men of our own blood who are in accord with our 
principles, which are also the principles of true Americanism. 

"We have no interest in the German Government. In fact, the German Government has 
often treated us shabbily. The German Empire as such is nothing to us. We owe no more 
allegiance to it than the Germans of Switzerland, Austria, Russia, or the Flemish population 
of Belgium. For that very reason we shall not permit America to be the pawn of Great 
Britain. The men of Forty-Eight, our forefathers, fought their government on the barricades. 
We are against Germany when Germany is in the wrong. We are with Germany when Ger- 
many is clearly and unmistakably in the right. Our opposition to Germany in the past proves 
the justice of our present support of her in the present. 



200 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

"We are better Americans than Dr. Eliot who attempts to drag our country into war with 
Germany. We have never sought to draw the United States into war with England. We are 
better Americans than Mr. George Haven Putnam, once of England, and other camp-followers 
of the British cause who seek to introduce British snobbery into American life. We have 
suffered much without complaint. But our patience is at an end. 

"We are with America, right or wrong, at all times. But we prefer America right to Ameri- 
ca wrong. We now propose to set America right." 

Now, that's the note. It sounds like a bugle blast from the blue. 

"You who have whispered truth, do it no longer; 
But speak like the trumpet does, — louder and stronger." 

Gentlemen, all you want for Germany is a fair show. There is no doubt of 
her winning if America stays out of the fight. (Some feel no doubt, even if 
America enters it against her. But we true Americans who love America more 
than England don't want America to get in it on either side.) We must keep 
America out of it. If we don't act quickly, it may be too late. The Tories among 
us are beginning to realize that the jig is up for all time with their beloved hEng- 
land if they can't get America embroiled against Germany at an early date. They 
are trying to move heaven and earth to bring it about. We must scotch it, and you 
with your enormous nucleus must take the initiative and start the ball rolling. 



BRYAN IN THE WAY 



Your worst trouble with Wilson will probably be Bryan. They both want to 
be President, and both want the Nobel prize. England has probably taken both 
of them to the mountain top and promised both of these high honors to both of 
them. Again, Bryan probably has had "conversations," a la Grey, with England 
and Japan that Wilson is not yet cognizant of. So Bryan will try to swing on. 
Of course, in view of his family relationship to England, it is an obvious impro- 
priety for him to continue where he is, because it would be humanly unnatural 
to expect him to be neutral. But you can't expect a spiritual pachyderm to feel 
a mere obvious impropriety; particularly one who, with his own hand wrote the 
Bennett will and had none but his own family witness him doing it. He won't re- 
sign, and W^ilson is afraid to fire him. 

But he needn't be. Bryan's recent cowardly screed that we permit England 
to insult and rob us because we are afraid of her has cooked his goose forever. 
His vaunted courage was what in the past made us all fools over him, particularly 
in the South. All Wilson's publicity accessories will have to do is to let the people 
know that Bryan really said it, aye, wrote it down in black and white, and lol 
an explosion, a collapse instanter of a balloon that soared long and high on noth- 
ing but hot airl 

I tell you, German-American fellow citizens, I know what I am talking about. 
We will cook Bryan's goose the minute we see and realize his craven pronuncia- 
mento. Our hearts are in the right place, Brothers. The trouble is wholly with 
our heads. We don't know, yet; but we can learn. And we are doing it faster 
than you think. Those of us who were subjected to endless embarrassments, es- 
trangements from dear friends, aye, constant physical danger when we counseled 
caution at the start, and, when we could get even a modicum of the suppressed 
truth, saw Germany was right and publicly proclaimed it — we can see already 
a great change. And it will grow greater and greater day by day, particularly 
as German guns thunder "victory" to the world. The crudest intellect can grad- 
ually learn what Germany is as it sees her whip two-thirds of the world, with the 
United States, in addition, furnishing the sinews of war against her. 

If Wilson does come across and puts through his great American Combined 
Peace and Neutrality Doctrine, and does firmly and purposely keep out of trouble 
with Germany; then help him land the Nobel Prize; but, by all means, don't go 
into hysterics even then and slop over. Let him feel this: We applaud the be- 
lated fraction of duty you have done; we forgive all your past derelictions. We 
will do you full justice." But don't go far enough to let him get you so tied to 
him that you may be estopped from jumping on him for some possible tremend- 
ous future faux pas. 



TO GERMAN-AMERICANS. 201 

And if he won't come across, but continues to act indirectly as England's 
ally, pursue him to the polls, through life, to the Judgment bar of God. Aye, 
when he dies, erect a twin monument to him fiddling while the world burns, 
and Nero who fiddled while Rome burned, on which inscribe the names of all your 
friends. Cousins, Nephews, Uncles, Brothers, Fathers, Sons, butchered by black- 
and-tan hellions and all of your female friends. Cousins, Nieces, Sweethearts, 
Daughters, Wives, Mothers outraged or raped by hell-fired Cossacks — all as a re- 
sult of munitions sent from the United States. 

If Wilson don't respond; or, even if he does, go straight after Congress and 
the State politicians. Reduce political computations and combinations to a 
Science. Hedge about and honeycomb every politician and political proposition, 
Prohibition, Woman's Suffrage, Tariff, Appropriations, etc., with a chain of po- 
litical dynamite. In this you will conquer. 

Form all manner of political combinations to establish a maximum of in- 
fluence. Rack your brains devising labyrinthine ramifications running to every 
political nook and cranny of the United States. 

You can carry the United States, hands down. Organize into a great 
mobile army, transferable, not in an illegal physical way, but by clearly thought- 
out political combinations of inter-dependent interests that will reach every con- 
gressional district, every township, every precinct, every ward, in the Nation. 

Do it right now. You can do it in 60 days, if you'll buckle down to it right. 
Once get this mighty mass of potential political explosive available for use, and 
the work will be done. Every politician will sit up and take notice, then take 
to cover, then jump on the band-wagon and try to lead the procession. But why 
elaborate — it is as plain as daylight. Why try to prove 2 plus 2 make 4. 

Of course, the tories and the few cold-blooded Britishers in our midst will 
give vent to a course of flatulent eructations of pious portest; and the venal or 
hopelessly purblind contingent of the Press will fetch a lugubrious lot of whines 
and howls — but they won't be worth even stopping to laugh at. The unbought 
of them, with thrifty instincts will quickly adjust themselves to the new conditions. 

Never let the wretches rest. Let them know you "have them on the list." 
Make them toe the mark. Let them know you will hold them personally respons- 
ible; that you will follow them in business, politics, social life, aye, and prosecute 
them before the very judgment bar of God. Go after the flannel-mouthed polit- 
ical demagogues who, jumping with the majority at the outset, went them one 
better, even advocating the assassination of the Kaiser and the absolute oblitera- 
tion of every German on the planet. Hold up to Eternal Execration the vicious 
portion of the press and pulpit, and after the war ends with results wholly dis- 
crediting them, keep them discredited before the people whom they essayed to 
educate. Never again let them get a hold on public opinion. Selahl 



CHAPTER X. 

AMERICA'S DUTY AND OPPORTUNITY 

Things that are equal to the same thing are equal to each other. 

"Hath not a German- American eyes? Hath not a German- American hands, organs, 
dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same 
weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the 
same winter and summer as any other American has?" — Shakespeare, very slightly para- 
phrased. 

Fellow-Americans: these two pictures are my text. I know you recognize 
them: George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. 




THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY ON HIS KNEES 

At Valley Forge, where our forefathers' bare feet stained the snow with blood, 
Geo. Washington on his knees thanking God, among other blessings, for the glori- 
ous help of the Germans under Steuben, Muhlenberg, De Kalb, Herkimer, and 
other glorious names too numerous to mention, and praying for success against 
the British who were trying to destroy their own offspring, the infant American 
Colonies, hiring for the purpose the savage Indian with his torch and tomahawk. 
With the aid of these brave men Washington won! 

What did he win? A chance to try the world's greatest experiment in a Re- 
publican form of government, the form outlined by Thomas Jefferson when he 
wrote the Declaration of Independence. The whole world owes Germany a debt 
for this help. The whole world owes her a debt for her establishment of indi- 
vidual liberty, religious liberty, spiritual liberty; for her great contributions to 
the world's Culture, a few items of which were enumerated in Chapter IX. 

But, my countrymen, America's debt is so vast it can never be paid. While 
England was tfying to strangle her own offspring, hiring the Indian with his 
torch and tomahawk to massacre us, those noble Germans were pouring out their 



AMERICA'S DUTY AND OPPORTUNITY. 203 

blood for us. Even the Teuton Hessians whose services England bought from the 
sordid and degenerate rulers of those days, cried like children and had to be 
forced to cross the ocean to fight us. And the historian tells us (see Encyclo- 
pedia Americana) that they so endeared themselves to the very people on whom 
they were quartered that when the war was over and they were leaving, the doors 
and windows were all ordered closed lest the sight of those good-hearted people 
leaving forever should cause an outbreak. 

Frederick the Great of Prussia was the first to recognize the United States and during 
the War of the Rebellion refused Hessian troops permission to be moved through Prussian 
territory. 

Hear this from a message to Congress March 15th, 1826, from President John 
Quincy Adams: 

"Three commissioners with plenipotentiary powers were appointed to negotiate treaties 
of amity, navigation and commerce with all the principal powers of Europe. They met and 
resided for that purpose, about one year in Paris, and the only result of their negotiations at 
that time was the first treaty between the United States and Prussia — memorable in the dip- 
lomatic history of the world and precious as a monument of the principles, in relation to 
commerce and marine warfare with which our country entered upon her career as a member 
of the great family of Independent Nations. This treaty provided restrictions favorable to 
neutral commerce, vipon belligerent practices with regard to contralband of war and blockade." 
(The thing England is violating right now.) 

"At that time, in the infancy of their political existence, under the influence of those prin- 
ciples of liberty and of right so congenial to the cause in which they had just fought and 
triumphed, they were able to obtain the sanction of but one great and philosophical, though 
absolute sovereign of Europe to their liberal and enlightened principles'. They could obtain 
no more." 

Germany never had a war with the United States. England had two. Ger- 
many never troubled us about the Panama Canal or Mexico, or the Monroe Doc- 
trine, as in the Venezuela case. Germany alone upheld us for the open door for 
China. 

As to Mexico, hear this from the New York Herald: 

AMERICANS IN MEXICO WISH GERMANY LUCK 
George B. Harmon, of Tampico, Mexico, said that the action of the Germans in Mexico 
in aiding Americans threatened by the federals during the revolution had won Germany many 
well wishers in Mexico, especially among foreigners there. Many Americans still remaining 
in Tamipico went so far as to wish Germany luck in the European war. 

"Personally I am a strict neutral regarding the war in Europe," he said, "because I am. 
a good American of Irish ancestry, but I do hope at least that no harm may come to the Ger- 
man cruiser Dresden or to her gallant captain. You will probably remember what he did for 
Americans at Tampico when for reai^ons of expediency and diplomacy the two American war- 
ships there were ordered away by Washington to Vera Cruz. The German captain went on 
shore and told the federals that if their rioting mobs were not dispersed and quieted in just 
fifteen minutes he would turn the guns of his ship on them. You can bet the authorities did 
disperse the rioters, too, and the plucky German skipper conveyed away safely all our Ameri- 
can women and children. I certainly take off my hat to him, and I don't believe I shall ever 
forget the incident." 

Brothers, Germans like America. Hear this from Adalbert Schueler in the 
Vital Issue: 

"The latest census tells us 85 per cent of all the English immigrants to this country 
never become American citizens, whilst outside the diplomatic and consular service main- 
tained by Germany in this country, you may not find more than one among 10,000 Germans 
who does not in due time become a bona fide citizen. 

"If one of these 85 per cent, of unnaturalized Englishmen running loose here, or one of 
their helpers should try to convince you that in case Germany and Austria should come out 
as victors the peace of this country would be menaced, tell them that every one of the Ger-' 
man-Americans living in this country has taken a solemn oath to defend this country against 
all foes — that they mean what they swore to and that they wou!ld never allow a war to be 
started between their native and adopted country." 

How does that compare with this: "Of the total number of aliens in New York City, 
the English-born constitute 32 1-2 per cent. Of the total number of these aliens, of more than 
seven years' residence, they constitute 84 per cent. Of the total number of English cate- 



204 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

chised by the officials of New York City for jury duty from January 1, 1912, to June 15, 1914, 
96 1-2 per cent, were aliens, approximately 40 per cent, of whom had been in the country more 
than 15 years." Euglishers don't naturalize. They merely come over to see, or, as they ex- 
press it, "do" (sic?) America. If they remain any length of time, it is simply to make 
money, or otherwise graft on the American slobs who run after them. 

The Germans constitute the very warp and filling of our American fabric. 
They opened up millions of acres in the West. 

And do you know, honest reader, you who boast of being an Anglo-Saxon, 
that the Germans are our close kinfolks? All real Anglo-Saxons are pure German; 
because both the Angles and the Saxons were Germans. Even the best English 
brand is two-thirds Germian, the best part of him — the Anglo-Saxon part. The 
other one-third is an injection of the Norman, with its trend toward serpentine 
intrigue and sporadic brutality. Many brunettes and nearly all fair-skins are es- 
sentially German. France gets its name from the Franks, a great German people 
who once ruled France — and the world as well. The energetic, resourceful, 
handsome, fair-skin of the French and Italian provinces is today a German. The 
finest types of Russia, the best of their big-brained, brave, dominating contingent 
are Germans. The great trouble is, there are not enough of them in Russia to 
raise the standard to the plane of civilization. 

Until this England-engineered war our national comity with Germany and 
Austria was greater than with any other countries. Germany and Austria-Hun- 
gary have concluded treaties with America which absolves a German, Austrian 
or Hungarian, who has become a naturalized American from military service. 
France, the country of nonmilitarism, did not conclude this treaty, and papers of 
naturalized Americans are not recognized in France. Any American, traveling in 
Germany or Austria-Hungary, is respected by the authorities. In Russia American 
passports are considered void and depend upon the owner's religion. In 1912, 
America had refused, in retaliation for this, to renew the commercial treaty with 
Russia, but did not succeed in her attempt to have her citizens respected in "civ- 
ilized" Russia. 

Here is what Senator La Follette says about the Germans in his paper: 

"For weeks Germany was wholly without direct means of communication. Her voice 
was silenced and the opposition filled the news columns of the world with representations of 
the 'unspeakable cruelty of Germans.' It almost seemed that the flood tide of these charges 
of German barbarity would quite submerge our American sense of fair play. Then our people 
began to remember that we knew something of Germans and Germany ourselves; that their 
resolute maintenance of right and justice and integrity and good order has stamped itself 
upon the character of almost every community in our country; that the German love of music 
and song, and children and home; that German poetry and literature and culture were per- 
sistent forces in the higher civilization of the world." 

And this is from Theodore Roosevelt in the New York Times: 

"The Germans are not merely our brothers; they are largely ourselves. The debt we owe 
to German blood is great; the debt we owe to German thought and to German example, not 
only in governmental administration, but in all the practical work of life, is even greater. 
Every generous heart, and every farseeing mind throughout the world should rejoice in the 
existence of a stable, united and powerful Germany, too strong to fear aggression and too 
just to be a source of fear to its neighbors." 

I make bold to venture the prediction that in spite of the terrible and com- 
plicated hybridization of the United States under our liberal immigration laws, 
the German leaven will "Leaven the whole lump." in a century and a half more 
and prove a Republic to be capable of self-preservation. 

This will be due to the great Spirituality of the German character. It will 
be sufficient to counteract the sensualism and sordidness of the other stocks. 

Says Prof. Sanborn, Professor of Philosophy of Vanderbilt University: 

"England, as Muensterberg pointed out in the 'Americans,' has steadily degenerated since 
the days of Shakespeare, until it has been called appropriately merely a 'nation of shop-keep- 
ers," and France and Italy taken as a whole are not much better off; it is not the France of 
Mollere, nor the Italy of Dante even in spirit. The German nation, on the contrary, has stead- 
ily adhered to its ancient veneration for the eternal values of life, and has never, in the 



AMERICA'S DUTY AND OPPORTUNITY. 205 

midst of material progress, lost sight of the fact that riches and commercial prosperity are 
not for luxury, but for the development of the higher life to be based upon it. This thought 
permeates all classes of the nation and makes them instinctively despise Russians and other 
races with low aims of life. 

"Ask the average Englishman of breeding and intelligence — the men who at present con- 
trol the development and application of English material resources — what the purpose of edu- 
cation is, and he will promptly tell you that it is for some material advantage, 'getting on 
in the world' and the like. If you suggest that there may be something further than this he 
does not understand what you mean; for he and his kind have not yet come to the stage of 
self-consciousness that grasps higher aims than this. He believes in universities and voca- 
tional training, to be sure, but only because he believes that these are instrumental to the 
realization of greater material prosperity, and he is correspondingly alarmed when he seems. 
to discover that the training-process does not produce 'efficient' men. He wants specialist- 
men rather than men-specialists. Germany, on the other hand, has attained as a nation to 
that stage of self-consciousness where the eternal values are clearly conceived, where ma- 
terial wealth is consciously and unremittingly transmuted into spiritual values. 

GERMANY ABOVE CRASS MATERIALISM. 

"All Europe except Germany has been steadily sinking to a plane of crass materialism, 
which has been resisted successfully in the Fatherland by the vehement warnings of the best 
of the nation. In case of England and France which once lived upon a higher plane, the de- 
generation has been so thoroughgoing that certain of their pseudo-statesmen unable to feel the 
toto coelo difference between the aims of East and West and moved by the low passions of 
jealousy and revenge, have come to betray the culture of the West to the Oriental." 

"Even our anti-German newspapers concede the absolute accuracy of official German 
statements. The German child is taught from early infancy that among the most despicable 
and cowardly sins are lying and hypocrisy." 

And what has been our experience with England. Hear Thomas Jefferson: 

"England is, in principle, the enemy of all maritime waters. The object of England is the 
permanent domination of the ocean and the monopoly of the trade of the world. To secure 
this she must keep a larger fleet than her resources will maintain. The resources of other 
nations, then, must be impressed to supply the deficiency in her own." 

And President James Madison: 

"British cruisers have been in the practice of violating the rights and the peace of our 
coasts. They hover over and harass our entering and departing commerce. . . . Under 
pretended blockades . . . our commerce has been plundered in every sea, the great staples 
of our country have been cut off from their legitimate markets, and a destructive blow aimed 
at our agricultural and maritime interests." 

And Von Mach: 

"England destroyed or attached to herself in turn the great world commerce of Spain, 
Portugal, France, Holland, and the United States." 

And Prof. Sloane: 

"This is our militarism; that of Great Britain has been to maintain a fleet double our owr» 
or any other in size, for it is her basic principle to maintain an unquestioned supremacy on 
the highways of commerce. To ths we have meek'y assented, while other nations absorb our 
carrying trade and our flag waves over a fleet of perhaps a dozen respectable oceangoing trad- 
ing and passenger ships. It is under her rather patronizing protection that we fight our foreign 
wars and by pressure from her that we manage the Panama Canal with nice and honorable 
attention to her interpretation of a treaty capable of quite a different one." 

Thus have we heretofore fared at England's hands. How about right now? 

She has anglicized our tories, and toadies, and slobs. She has emasculated 
our statesmen. She has prostituted our press. Hear George Moore in the San 
Francisco Examiner : 

"Europe knows America and we misunderstand Europe through news bearing the London 
date. Negro burning, the Camorra, bull fights, the Dreyfus case, Russian Jew slaughters, pass- 
to and fro as 'news' through London. 

"Since the establishment of the Triple Entente London remade the French character for 
the world. On the date of the Entente's beginning, the myth of French decadence became the 



206 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

miracle of French renaissance. From the same moment the 'bear that walks like a man' was 
transformed by Dr. Dillon and a host of lesser English into a simple Christian hero. 

"Everyone remembers the English-told story of the Japanese-Russian war. That story 
drove us mad with admiration for the Japanese, England's ally. From London the news 
poured into our newspapers, always for Japan till we served as England's tool to help humil- 
iate Russia by a disastrous peace and hated the Japanese since the next day after the treaty 
was signed." 

Hear Frank Koester in "Fatherland": 

HOW THE ENGLISH PRESS MOULDS OPINION. 

"During the Russo-Japanese war the British system of press misinformation 'fed up' the 
newspapers of the United States pro-Japanese matter. We were constantly admiring our 
"little brown brothers," an admiration which has sensibly cooled since the truth of the rela- 
tion of the United States and the Japanese has dawned upon the public. 

"Now that Russia is an ally of England, Dr. Eliot is trying to have us believe that in 
the brief time since the massacres of Kishineff, Russian civilization has been so greatly im- 
proved that Russia may today be considered the torch bearer of enlightenment." 

She has thus gotten the American public so hypnotized that we will stand for 
anything she will do to us. 

Early in the war she sowed the North Sea with commerce-crippling mines 
thick as wheat; and not a syllable of protest from Uncle Sam. (And now when 
Germany, months afterwards does the same, O what a hemi-demi-semi-quavering 
bleat of indignation John Bull and the American slobs stab the air with!) 



BRITISH AGGRESSION ON THE HIGH SEAS 

On December 4, the British Government informed the authorities at Wash- 
ington that an extensive searching of ships bearing American cargoes had be- 
come necessary, because it has, as it claims, discovered cases of copper con- 
cealed in cargoes. The British Government has given no specific cases, but con- 
fines itself, as usual to generalities. 

The right of search for contraband of war is well recognized by international 
law, but the British Government is not content with searching a ship in the le- 
gitimate and prescribed way. It proposes to take ships into its own ports, and 
there to make an extensive search, even going so far as to unload the cargo. 

And if such mere right of search is "recognized by international law," it 
shouldn't be permitted. England violates it whenever she feels so disposed. And 
the United States right now has an opportunity to assert the true doctrine, viz. : 

2'he practice of seizing what is called contraband of war is an abusive prac- 
tice, not founded in natural right. War between two nations cannot diminish the 
rights of the rest of the world. What is contraband by the laws of nature? Either 
everything which may aid or comfort an enemy, or nothing. The difference be- 
tween articles of one or another description is a difference in degree only. No 
line between them can be drawn. Either all intercourse between neutrals and 
belligerents must cease, or all be permitted. Can the world hesitate to say which 
shall be the rule? Shall two nations turning tigers break up in one instant the 
peaceful relations of the whole world? Reason and nature clearly pronounce that 
the neutral is to go on in the employment of all rights, that its commerce remains 
free, not subject to the jurisdiction of another, nor consequently its vessels to 
search, or to inquiries whether their contents are the property of an enemy, or 
are of those which have been called contraband of war. 

The loss of our produce destined for foreign ports, or that loss which would 
result from arbitrary restraint of our markets is a loss too great for us to acquiesce 
in. It is not enough to say, "We and our frineds will buy your produce." We 
have a right to answer that it suits us to sell to their enemies as well as their 
friends. If we permitted corn to be sent to Great Britain and her friends we are 
called upon to allow it to be sent to Germany. To restrain it would be partiality 
which might lead to war with Germany; and between restraining it ourselves, and 
permitting her enemies to restrain it unrightfully, is no different. She would 
consider this as a mere pretext to which she would be the dupe, and on what 
honorable ground could we otherwise explain it. Were we to withhold from 



AMERICA'S DUTY AND OPPORTUNITY. 207 

France supplies of provisions, we would in like manner be bound to withhold 
it from her enemies also. This is a dilemma which Great Britain has no right to 
force upon us. She may indeed feel the desire of starving an enemy nat.on, but 
she can have no right to do it at our toss, nor of making us an instrument of it. 

Of course this is a brand new doctrine. I know it sounds revolutionary^ 
heretical. I know it stamps me as a frenzied visionary, a wild-eyed fanatic — 
just exactly as it did Thomas Jefferson, the most prehensile brain America ever 
produced, who wrote every line of it; the first paragraph to Robert Livingston 
and the second to Thomas Pinckney. I simply substituted Germany for France. 

But, even if our little technical brains of the present day can't spontaneously 
grasp a virile proposition like that, we still should not have permitted the seizures 
on the ground England alleges. Her ground is this, taking copper for the illus- 
tration: all copper sent to Italy or other neutral countries will be by them sold to 
Germany. Of course this is not true. Germany at the very outset, thorough going 
as she is about everything, bought all of the stocks of copper on hand in all the 
contiguous neutral countries. So, they can legitimately, with the presumption in 
their favor, claim that the purchases from the United States are to replenish 
their exhausted stocks, and the burden would be on England to disprove it. Again, 
with reference to foodstuffs, England, even under the logic of her own method of 
reasoning would be estopped from further argument. Why? Because she herself 
has established a precedent on the subject. During the Boer war, Lord Salisbury 
declared: 

"It is not sufficient that they (i. e., foodstuffs with a hostile destination) are capable of 
being so used; it must be shown that this was in fact their destination at the time of the 
seizure." 

Secretary Hay in 1904 held that "Articles like coal, cotton, and provisions, 

are not subject to capture and confiscation unless shown by evidence to be actually destined 

for the military and naval forces of a beligrerent This principle of law of nations 

cannot be overridden by the assertion that the owners of the captured cargo must prove that 
no part of it may eventually come to the hands of the enemy's forces. The proof is of an im- 
possible nature, and it cannot be admitted that the absence of proof in its nature impossible 
to make can justify the seizure and condemnation. If it were otherwise, all neutral commerce 
with the people of a belligerent State would be impossible. Mere presumption is in effect a 
declaration of war against commerce of every description between people of a neutral and 
those of a belligerent State." 

So, Brother, England locked up for us by pretended technicality "five hun- 
dred million dollars of German trade, the same amount of French, Belgian and 
Austrian trade; even the Russian trade is perfectly locked up, and there is no 
outlet for the exportation of such staple products as cotton, oil, copper and 
wheat, all of which the United States wishes to export." 

But, we shouldn't be bound by the shackles of technicality to refrain from 
shipping anything, excepting munitions, which no peace-professing country can 
send to any belligerent without stultifying itself. We've got just as much right 
to send anything we please to Germany — or anywhere else — as England has to 
seize them; especially once England repudiates international law. She has done 
it by hoisting the United States flag over her commercial vessels to save them 
from German submarines. Such is a palpable violation of International Law. 
Says John Bassett Moore in his able compilation of said law: 

"The assumption of the flag of a foreign state without its authorization is 
considered as a violation of international law, as a device both fraudulent and 
injurious to the honor of such state. Both the state whose flag is wrongfully 
used and that in regard to which the use of the false flag is made have the right 
to demand punishment of the guilty persons and, according to circumstances, to 
punish them themselves. * • *" 

She has done it in other ways. Therefore, we are dolts to let her both violate 
and assert it to our hurt. And let us take a peep at what England has done for 
our commerce months ago: 

Thirty-one ships have been relieved of their copper freight. At the present moment nine 
thousand three hundred and fifty tons of copper are piled up at Gibraltar — every ton taken by 
British cruisers from American ships on their way to seutral ports. Four of the thirty-ono 



208 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

ships seized were bound for Holland, fourteen for Italy, thirteen for Sweeden. Senator Walsh, 
in speaking- of these high-handed proceedings, said: "Senators will understand that cotton 
as well as foodstuffs have been declared conditional contraband. All meats, all cereals are 
within that limit." 

Senator Walsh further said: "A learned Italian writer, in a contribution to the press, 
appearing- in our journals of Monday, December 28, 1914, breathing a most friendly spirit to- 
ward Britain, declared 'strictly speaking no foreign vessel can leave a port without England's 
consent.' " 



This is just one item. It all really counts for nothing anyhow, and is used 
only to show England's arrogance from the outset. (In the past two weeks she 
has placed the embargo on everything, making no pretense to legality.) 

As Fatherland pointedly put it: 

"England is blockading our harbors and searching- our ships and those of neutral nations 
for foodstuffs and raw material destined for neutral countries, on the hypocritical plea that 
they may ultimately reach Germany or Austria-Hung-ary, but in reality to check the develop- 
ment of American commerce, which now has the opportunity of a century to expand in pro- 
portion to its importance. 

"The ammunition factories, saddlery shops, g-un factories and steel plants are working 
overtime to supply the Allies with means of slaughtering- German soldiers. 

"The $34,800,000 monthly deficit falls on the American farmer, miner and business man 
who has to discharge his employees for want of work. And all because under Secretary Bryan 
*{fither-in-law of a captain in the English army) the United States allows England to say 
what shall and what shall not go out of our harbors. 

"Japan is being equipped with American arms, which that grateful country will ultimately 
turn against ourselves, just as she turned her German-drilled army against her erstwhile 
benefactor, while the products of our farms are taboo, except what English warships permit 
to pass. 

"Do you wonder that times are hard?" 

She even went so far as to elicit this: 

ARE WE BRITISH SUBJECTS? 

"To the Editor of the Evening Post: 

"Sir: May I bring to your notice some circumstarkecs which appear to me nothing short 
of a gross insult to American sovereignty and to American liberty, and which, in my opinion, 
call for prompt Federal action? 

"The New York firm with which I am connected is shipping merchandise from here to 
Barcelona, Spain. The goods are not contraband of war; they are shipped from the United 
States, a neutral country, by a ship under a neutral. flag (of the Spanish Line), to a neutral 
country, Spain. In spite of this, we, the American shippers, are compelled to make a sworn 
statement before the British Consul in New York to the effect that the goods shipped are the 
exclusive property of our consignee in Spain, that the goods are to remain in Spain, etc. We 
could not make the shipment without this sworn affidavit, and we even had to pay the British 
Consul for certifying same. 

"Are the United States a British vassal state? The above facts certainly prove that they 
are compelled to act as such. 

"C. L. SCHLENS." 

"Garden City, December 31." 

It is but surplusage to mention her high-handed seizures of mail and refusal 



AMERICA'S DUTY AND OPPORTUNITY 



209 



to recognize passports. To say nothing of her insolence in dictating to us about 
wireless messages and in forbidding us to buy Germany's interned ships. 

Of course there were some among us who coulnd't stand for such outrages. 
Speaking for them Senator Stone asked Mr. Bryan: "Wherefore this thusness?" 
Mr. Bryan answered that he had done all he could. He had fded a protest when- 
ever we were outraged. (What he should have done is to be seen in the accom- 
panying cartoon, to be entitled "Another Crimp Needed.") 




<K.NTL-E "KtMiNDtR. 



Hy Mayer in "Puck." 

But Mr. Bryan didn't stop there. He soared to the dizzy heights of initiative 
and unique originality, by announcing a brand new doctrine. 

You won't believe it when I tell you that Bryan has proclaimed to the world 
that we are cowards, but he has. Here are his exact words: 

"The fact that the commerce of the United States is interrupted by Great Britain is con- 
sequent upon the superiority of her navy on the liig-h seas." 

This is a new note in our Republic's march of triumph. It is a dirge. 
Can it be that an American Secretary of State penned these dastard lines? Yes, 
Bryan did it. It goes into History as the Bryan Doctrine and, like the Monroe 
Doctrine, will be accepted as typifying us unless we give it the lie loud enough to 
thunder through all time. Great God, grant it may be a horrid nightmare! But 
no. It stands in black and white, penned by craven hand and proudly claimed by 
craven heart, proudly acclaimed by craven press. It is the last word in apostasy, 
the climax of all cowardice. It is a thrice cowardly circumlocution for the honest 
coward's motto: 

" 'S no disgrace to run, 'f you're skeered." 

Yes, it's the Doctrine of the man who, for a quarter of a century, (often with- 
out cause) bellowed bovine defiance at one he called mankind's chief crucifier; 
who bawled unintermittingly at her Wall Street Cohorts-of-the-Coin, until the last 
few years. 

But now, a change has come. His daughter's wed an English Cap'n. He 
thinks, therefore, he is technically Bebritished. He thinks her marriage means his 
metempsychosis instead of transmogrification. He feels quite x\squithy, don't 
you know. He has that "Us English" feeling. He thinks he's kin to John Bull, 
because John Bull's picture shows a fat carcass and fat head. He feels even more 
John Bully than the original; because lack of healthy exercise has given his 
slothful corporosity the incalculable convenience of unshirting over the head 
without unbuttoning the collar. 

So, fellow-Americans, he says we are a nation of cowards. Aye, further, he 
says in effect England would jump on us if we asserted our rights. Therein he 
deliberately falsifies. He takes us to be fools as well as cowards. He knows Eng- 



210 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



land already has her hands so full she wouldn't dare to tackle us, whatever we 
should do or dare. He knows we could seize Canada in a week; could repudiate 
the $6,000,000,000.00 her Sir Paish says we owe, which is ten-fold more precious 
to her than Canada; (for the repudiation of which John Bull has himself set a most 
logical and condign precedent by cancelling all of the patents and copyrights of 
German private citizens and confiscating their deposits in the banks; could, with 
Germany on the other flank, smash her vastly boasted but poorly proven navy. No, 
fellow-yellow-bloods, Bryan doesn't even give us cowards the bluffer's chance 
which all true cowards love so well to use. He knows we have caught the Lion 
with a bone in his throat — he couldn't bite if he wanted to and we, this once at 
least, can make him dance to any tune we play; — but Bryan says we mustn't even 
play the tune of just demand for even our simplest universally conceded rights. 




His special treatment of Uncle Sam. 



John Buli't attitude to the World. 

From "T.ustige Blaetter."' 



What think ye, Americans, of this performance? Red-bloods, does it spell 
YOU? Whither are we drifting? Have we crossed the deadline? Has fatty de- 
generation set in? Are we hopelessly hybridized, as universally asserted by the 
contemptuous English? Hear the typical English organ, John Bull: 

"The Note was simply a damp squib. One of those things that our friends — and at heart 
they are our friends — the Americans do like to explode once in a while. By this time, Mr. 
Wilson must have seen that the demand made by himself and half-a-dozen other individual 
Americans is to use their own expressive, if somewhat vulgar word, bunkum. 



WILSON MUST JOLLY THE BHOYS. 

"America must play the g-ame. In commerce she must not bring in the touches that she 
introduced at the Stadium when Dorando really won that cup offered in the Marathon race. 
If she runs her cargoes past us successfully, well and good. We will not weep over the achieve- 
ment. If she attempts to run them and fails, she must bow to the fortunes of war. The 
copper and cotton kings have a corner to themselves, and we may bet much money that the 
armourers are not g-rouching-, for their trade is booming-. Russia alose has placed a contract 
with a leading- firm for 18-inch howitzers that will keep the show g-oing- for over a year, and 
as the g-oods are to be delivered by way of Vladivostock, it is not likely that the Huns will cut 
them out. Other firms are working night and day, Sundays included, turning out millions 
of small arms and fhousands of millions of rounds of ammunition, destined for the field. We 
have not heard that those makers of implements of destruction have gone weeping to the 
President. 



AMERICA'S DUTY AND OPPORTUNITY. 211 

UNCLE SAM WOULD NOT DARE FIGHT JOHN BULL 

"With two huge contingents of troops under arms in Canada, and the Japanese looking 
towards the Pacific seaboard, America cannot dream of drawing the cutlery of war or shoving 
shells into the breeches of her guns; indeed, it is a thing that the American people, as a people, 
never dreamed for a moment of doing. Let this, however, be remembered. Every vote in 
the United States is nursed by some political party — and the best way of nursing the Ger- 
man vote is by pleasing the German. A few weeks ago a deputation of leading Frankfort saus- 
sage eaters visited Washington to ask President Wilson to hurt us and our allies by forbidding 
all communications between America and our coasts! 'JMiey were laughed out of the town. 

GOT US IN THEIR VEST POCKET. 

"In gauging this little side show, we must remember the heterogeneous mass of peoples 
who populate the States. They represent every country under the sun. As already said, the 
citizen has a vote, and the American politician regards the vote as being almort as valuable 
as a passport into Paradise. Therefore, when a President is approached, as Mr. Wilson has 
been approached, by a section of his voters, he must either bow to their behests or his party 
will lose their support when next election time comes around. In the bulk, the American 
people are our friends, and the vast majority who are not of the German-American eiement 
are as keen as we are on the lines that we and our allies have mapped out — and as early as 
possible." 

This, or worse, has always been the way the English regarded us. Just before 
the war of 1812 the London Times boasted: "the Yankees could not even be kicked 
into a war;" and, as even conceded by \he. Outlook, in the war between the States: 

"It was at this time, when the best blood of the North and of the South was flowing in 
defense of great political convictions, that the London 'Times' spoke of the United States as 
'this insensate and degenerate people.' " 



The following paragraph cabled to "The Tribune" from London, under date of January 31: 
"A strong anti-American feeling was shown by hisses and a shout of 'Dollars' during Lord 
Rosebery's speech in Edinburgh yesterday, when he mentioned the United States." 

But even if thus hyper-hybridized beyond capacity for assimilation, must our 
Democracy die so soon? Less than a century and a half old! How sad is death 
for one "so young and so fair?" Even dark complected, atrabilious Rome's 
republic lasted over 400 years. God grant, at least before the final throes set in, 
a glorious Elder Brutus may arise to hold in check a while the pangs of dissolution! 

Patrick Henry, come down from the auroral clouds and cry again : "Give me 
liberty or give me death!" George Washington, Francis Marion, "Light Horse 
Harry" (father of Robert Edward), Andrew Jackson, drop a spirit-bomb from the 
sky and wake your seemingly degenerate scions up! Thomas Jefferson, whom 
this incarnation of Apostacy has always invoked until this awful hour; father of 
Democratic doctrine; author of the Declaration of Independence; draft another 
document like that and let God Almighty send it under a convoy of Angels to re- 
generate our calloused souls, before it is everlastingly too late! 

God Almighty, if Democracy must die let it at least die in the glory of open 
struggle, and not from mere self-gangrene! 

Americans: Abraham Lincoln plunged our great nation in war merely to 
save the Union; to keep together all the States in order to test out the mere union 
theory of our Republic. Millions sprang to his side and victoriously fought their 
Brothers of the Southern States merely for the sake of the abstract Union prin- 
ciple. 

My father and all of his and all of my mother's relations, so far as I know, in 
Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi, opposed secession. 
Unlike many Southerners, they didn't fight for slavery. They opposed slavery 
as an Institution, although themselves large slave-holders, favoring gradual eman- 
cipation with equitable compensation. They knew that Slavery, for the time being, 
(and for probably 50 years to come) was a blessing to the negro, in steadying 
him, mentally and physically, habituating him to discipline and industry, hence 
equipping him for his evolutionary journey; but they knew that slave ownership 
was a curse to the Masters. 

Yet they all volunteered; went like droves to the war, from 12 years old up, 



212 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



and poured out their blood like water. And why? Simply because of an abstract 
principle, States' Rights, less than a "Scrap of Paper." They never intended to 
go until Mr. Lincoln sent Federal troops to coerce their hot-headed Sister State 
of South Carolina. It is little known, but true, that Virginia and North Carolina 
never seceded until after these troops were sent. 

I would be ashamed to look my Father's, Uncles' Cousins' spirits in the face 
if they should confront me in this awful hour and ask me: "What does this 
mean — has that brave nation become a race of cowards?" I could only turn my 
head and falter: "Surely not, they just don't understand — they'll come all right 
in time." And, Brothers, I believe we will. But, for God's sake, let's keep our eyes 
open. 

Just a few days after this shameful Bryan screed was published, England an- 
nounced she proposed to starve Germany out. Germany replied that she would 
submarine every English merchant vessel and starve England out; and established 
a war-zone about England, warning neutral ships, with ample notice, away. Eng- 
land answered by hoisting the American flag over her ships. 

Things looked squally. Wilson and Bryan got busy. The papers announced 
that they proposed to fetch Germany to her senses. In a day or so they would 
send a note that would take the starch out of her. My heart failed. It meant 
war, dead sure, if the papers were telling the truth. I knew Germany would not 
back down and let her women and children starve. She ain't built that way. 
Then, when she let Mr. Wilson have it straight, he would have to declare war. I 
kept thinking, Good-bye to the Republic. The fatal hour approaches. If, in com- 
pany with England, Russia, Japan and the hired hellions we crush Germany, by 
the time its all over we will be tarred with the same stick they are. If Germany 
whips us all we will have wronged a good friend and received a most humiliating 
larruping from her. 

As a part of the day's work, in trying to keep this book up-to-date while 
waiting on my publishers (for, fearing my poem, Chapter VII, might not have the 
merit my friends ascribed to it, and wishing to insure something that would have 
educational value and be worth the price, I had been for several months hard 
at work trying to add all available data to the book, making, in the effort some 
extreme sacrifices) — I say, I wrote mechanically, but with no hope in my heart; 
for I thought the jig was up: 

"Americans, do you know what Wilson and Bryan are doing right now? 
They are doing what many believe is a deliberate effort to force us into a war 
with Germany. 



cocxp ifisa. , 
TO Wfircf JofM B<ju.i DiL£fin» foftfi 

fi/vo see »'»'/>' MS f^ewfitsoorsf 




nONPAY FEBe 19/5 



From the "Vital Issue. 



"You see, it's this way. England says: food shall not be shipped to Germany,, 
even to civilians and non-combatants, thus violating a principle of that very 
system of International Law on which she harped so stridulously when she forced 
Germany to rush through Belgium. Says England, openly, even boastfully: "I 
propose to starve Germany out, if I have to dry up the blood of 70,000,000 non- 
combatants, my own and allies' soldiers held as prisoners included." 

"Says Germany: 'Not if God reigns in Heaven! If you try to slow-murder 
by drying up through starvation, the blood of our innocent fathers and mothers, 
our beloved brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, wives and sweethearts, we will try 



AMERICA'S DUTY AND OPPORTUNITY. 



213 



to keep you from doing it by giving you a dose of your own medicine — we will 
starve you until you cry enough and quit the starving game. And how will we 
do it? There is but one way and that is to torpedo your boats loaded with food. 

"Then England raises a palpitating yowl of holy horror, and shrieks: 'I 
will hoist the United States flag on all my boats, and you can't tell mine from hers, 
and, although she has precious few; yet, if you go to torpedoing promiscuously 
around you will eventually sink one of hers and she will declare war on you.' 

*'And you won't believe it when I tell you that England actually does fly our 
flag and is trying to get Germany in the confusion to sink an American vessel by 
mistake, and have us declare war on Germany for the mistake. England thinks 
we would declare it, and she has had a hunch from somewhere. The newspapeirs 
every day carry big headlines like this: 'How far will the Kaiser go? The a'd- 
ministration most gravely concerned. Feared in Washington war with Germany 
only matter of time.' 




Hiding behind Columbia's Skirts. 
Barclay in "Baltimore Sun." 



From "Philadelphia Enquirer." 

Wouldn't it be awful if your Uncle's hat were tor- 
pedoed by mistake? 



"Friends, wake up; they are trying to get you into an utterly outrageous at- 
titude toward Germany and get you into a war with her without your ever know- 
ing what you are mad about. England is the one that you should despise. She 
dares to raise the American flag on her boats. She does it first, from cowardice, 
to keep the Geramns from sinking them, and, second, to try to get a pretext to 
get America involved. The thing to do is to tell England in a way she will under- 
stand: Time's up; we've fooled with you long enough; we've stood for your in- 
sults and thefts; but you shan't drag us into a war with Germany. Don't you 
hoist the flag, cowardly pirate that you are, on a single ship of ours. If you do, 
it means war. 

"That is all that is necessary. That keeps us out of any war with Germany; 
for, Germany says specifically she is friendly to us and won't touch an American 
ship. 

"But what does our administration actually do? It does nothing to bring 
England to her senses; but lets the papers drop a hint that we are likely to have 
a war with Germany. It lets them announce that relations with Germany are 
getting strained to the breaking point, but in the same issue says: 'United 
States will not push Wilhelmina matter any further.' And the next day: 'Eng- 
land sends the Wilhelmina to the English prize court.' That means the Wil- 



214 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

helmina will be held the rest of the war and her cargo confiscated — yes, anything 
goes with Uncle Sam that England wants to put over. 

And next day what did Uncle Sam actually tell England and Germany? As 
the Anglicized press gloatingly but correctly put it in the headlines: "Uncle Sam 
warns Germany and suggests to England." 

Then I wrote: "What does it mean, Americans? Can it mean anything else 
than one of three things: either first, our administration is honest but cowardly 
past all belief, and hasn't sense enough to guide our ship of state; or second, it is 
dishonest, in that it is tied hard and fast to England by some sinister secret com- 
pact; or third, that, inasmuch as the Anti-Germans are dwindling, being now only 
about 3 to 1, Wilson will not longer run the risk either of the ratio lessening as 
the war goes on, or the heat of partisanship cooling; so he, in order to insure his 
re-election, is going to keep up that ratio and heat even if it takes war to do it. 

"It certainly means one of these three things. Brothers; and that means it is 
time to call a halt. Let Mr. Wilson know, and if he won't heed, let Congress know 
that they can't involve us in war on this, or any other such flimsy pretext that 
may arise. We want to keep out of this war. We must do it. 

"For God's sake, Americans: Are we going the Rome route? Have we already 
reached our apex? Are we even now going down the long incline? Our Republic 
is lost, if we don't call a halt on Wilson and Bryan. For God's sake, wake up, 
Americans! Are you too stupid to see that you are being bound hand and foot, 
to be signed, sealed and delivered, like a mere bundle to England? Can't you 
see the meaning of the craven conduct of your administration? 

"I'm through talking Germany. I'm talking America, now — plain United 
States. If Germany had treated us as England has I would say: read the riot act 
to Germany; and all the American Anglophiles would demand that war be waged 
on her. But Germany has not mistreated or insulted us. She has not seized a 
single one of our ships. If she had done so, Wilson and Bryan would be trying 
right now to fire our hearts for war against her. England, on the contrary, has 
heaped all manner of insult and actual injury upon us. Gentlemen, There is 
something rotten in Denmark.' England wouldn't be doing this unless she had 
received what she deemed authentic assurances that we would stand for it. But 
will we stand for it? O, will we never wake up until the net is woven so hard 
and fast around us that we can't break it? Bryan says that occasionally he files a 
protest as some outrage of especial enormity is committed against us by England; 
— to be contemptuously ignored by her in every instance. What sort of a creep 
does that send up your spine, red-bloods? He says we must smilingly acquiesce 
because, forsooth, England has a bigger navy than ours. 

"Great God in Heaven! the horrid proposition keeps ringing in our ears. It 
wont' down, and it shouldn't. 

"Americans, the alarm clock is striking. Can't we awake from our trance? 
Are we hopelessly drugged as well as hypnotized? Can't you see the breakers 
right at you? Germany don't want to fight you. Twenty-five millions of American 
men, women and children of German blood are hostages against that. Why, then 
should goii want to fight Germany'] You say you don't. Then for God's sake call 
a halt on Wilson and Bryan. I know you don't know anything about it — you are 
leaving it to them. That is where you err. In the first place, they think you 
will stand for a war with Germany. Let them know you won't. We've got enough 
trouble in America now out of this war, and we dont' want any more. But Wil- 
son wants to be President again and many think his only hope is to get you into a 
war while he is in office, assuming that you will keep him then, on the old theory 
that it's unwise to change horses while crossing a stream. 

"Friends, post up a little on what is actually going on, not what the papers 
say, but what the things happening actually mean." 

I am always glad to correct a misrepresentation with all proper amplitude 
of apologetic assurance. I misrepresented Wilson and Bryan. I had them down 
all wrong. I was honest. I believed they had put it up to Germany for good and 
all. It certainly spelled war. In that event my book could not be published. My 
loves' labor would be lost. My severe sacrifices would never be requited. I should 
have tc^o to the war against Germany, although she was in the right from start to 
iinish. So exercised did I grow that the following day I wrote this: 



AMERICA'S DUTY AND OPPORTUNITY. 



215 




Caesare in the 
May the sparks 



"N. Y. Sun. 
never reach 



"Americans, we are passing through a terrible crisis. Others just as bad may 
turn up at any time. Let's pull the scales off our eyes and the wool out of our 
ears and sit up and take notice. Do you know the nature of the dreadful ordeal 
we are passing through? Stripped of all circumlocution it is this: 

"England declared openly, boldly, boast- 
ingly, without equivocation, without the 
possibility of any ambiguous construction, 
that she proposed to starve Germany out. 
(She couldn't drive them into concentration 
camps as she did the Boer women and chil- 
dren and starve them; because, for a very 
good reason, she couldn't get to them.) She 
couldn't whip German soldiers; so she pro- 
posed to 'fetch 'em to taw' by starving their 
innocent loved ones at home, their old 
fathers and mothers, their weaker brothers, 
their sisters, their sweethearts, wives and 
their little children. So far, so good. It 
'all went merry as a marriage bell' with 
Wm. Jennings (shall we not call him Vis- 
count Wm. Jennings — or had we better 
make it dzscount?) and the dear old Herr 
Doctor Professor. Of course, it was all right 
to starve some seventy millions of mere Ger- 
mans, mere necessarily inferior, because 
utterly unhybridized, people — particularly 
the aged and weak and innocent! What vig- 
orous brain, superior to mere maudlin emo- 
tion, could object to such a fundamental 
philosophical proposition? 
"Strange to say, those abominable and recalcitrant, utterly unreasonable Ger- 
mans couldn't see the point. They actually had the unspeakable audacity to object 
to that program. They even had the unmitigated insolence to say: 'We won't 
let you starve our old and infirm and our babies, wives, daughters, sisters, sweet- 
hearts, if we can help it. To fetch you to your senses, also to burn you up with 
the very faggot that you flung blazing at us, ive will starve ijoii out!' England 
laughed a quizzical little laugh and answered: 'And pray, how will you do it?' 
"Germany replied: 'Oh, that's dead easy. You wouldn't let the United States 
build or buy any merchant boats, old Greedy-paunch, fearing lest she might take 
stuff to Germany, and also wishing yourself to get all the profit for hauling; so, 
practically all the pabulum that comes to you is in English ships, — and I will 
'bust 'em up' as they get in sight of Deah hold Hengland, doncher know — in 
plain Henglish, I'll submarine 'em. My new and improved submarines are just 
getting the finishing touches, and the gods have made you mad just in good time 
for them.' 

" 'But, yelled old muddle-head, 'if you torpedo merchant vessels you will kill 
some dozen, dozen and a half, or two dozen non-combatants; for the crews of 
these ships are not fighters; — and that would be atrocious, it would be the slaying 
of innocent people.' 

" 'Exact-lee,' said Germany. 'We will slay, perhaps in all, say, some 7,000 
of these so-called innocents ( they are, of course, not so; because they don't have 
to run these ships) in order to keep you from slaying by starvation 70,000,000 
real innocents, our old fathers and mothers, our infirm brothers, our sisters, sweet- 
hearts, wives, daughters, little suckling babies.' 

" 'All right,' yelled England ghoulish — gleefully. 'Eureka! I'll hoist the Ameri- 
can flag on all my boats, and you wont' dare to sink a boat with that flag simply 
because it might be a sure enough American boat, and if you sank that my good 
old ally-under the bush, Uncle Sam, will 'bust the stuffin' outer yer.' And forth- 
with the contemptible craven proceeded to do it, to hoist the United States flag 
on her boats. ^ 

"Answered Germany, sadly but with mighty majesty: 



,.^J^.6 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

'I propose to keep you from starving my innocent and dear ones; the only 
way to do it is to ram your poison proposed for otliers down your own dastardly 
throat. And we will do it, never fear. America will not permit you in such behalf 
to fly her flag over your ships.' 

"Yelled England exultingly: 'Watch and see!' 

Yes, Americans, here is what Wilson and Bryan did. Salaaming with fawning 
sycophancy to John Bull, as they licked his boots, they handed him this per- 
fumed package: 

'We trust . . . His Majesty's Government will do all in their power to restrain vessels 
of the British nationality in the deceptive use of the United States flag in the sea area defined 
by the German declaration, since such practice would greatly endanger the vessels of a friendly 
Power navigating those waters and would even seem to impose upon the Government of Great 
Britain a measure of responsibility for the loss of American lives and vessels in case of an 
attack by a German naval force.' 

"And they conclude with this gentle adjuration: Please, therefore, graciously 
refrain from a 'too general use,' of the flag. In other words only fly it when it 
may seem important for protection from submarines or to fool Germany and get 
her to fire on an American vessel, thereby giving us a pretext to fight her. 

'Expressed the trust, eh, only the trust! The practice wouldn't actually 'im- 
pose' even the slightest 'measure of responsibility;' it would only 'seem' to, eh? 

"And what they gruffly handed Germany in a cuspidor as they blew a whiff 
of smoke in her face was this: 

'If the commanders of German vessels of war should act upon the presumption that the 
flag of the United States was not being used in good faith and should destroy on the high seas 
an American vessel or the lives of American citizens, it would be difficult for the Govemiment 
of the United Sates to view the act in any other light than as an indefensible violation of neu- 
tral rights, which it would be very hard, indeed, to reconcile with the friendly relations now 
happily subsisting between the two Governments. 

"If such a deplorable situation should arise, the Imperial German Government can readily 
appreciate that the Government of the United States would be constrained to hold the Im- 
j^erial Government of Germany to a strict accountability for such acts of their naval authori- 
ties, and to take any steps it might be necessary to take to safeguard American lives and 
^property and to secure to American citizens the full enjoyment of their acknowledged rights 
on the high seas.' 

"W^e would hold Germany to a 'strict accountability,' eh'? Some class, some 
spunk, to that — won't stand any foolishness; 'will take necessary steps' to enforce 
it, b'gosh! We'd better hold her even if she 'acted upon the presumption that our 
flag was not being used in good faith.' " 

"England replied, quickly and with snap: 'Oh, it's all right to use your flag, 
don't you know; so, of course, we will just continue to use it; — what's a mere flag 
anyhow, between friends and' (sotto voice) 'particularly Allies-under-the-Bush?' 

"Thus far everything went like clock-work newly greased; all just as sched- 
uled. Of course, there was nothing left for Germany to do but give in and either 
let her people starve or to surrender to save them from it. 

"How supernally radiant everything seemed to Wilson and Bryan that bright 
particular February morning! The air was warm with genial sunshine and vocal 
with the music of all the warblers. There was one note that sounded especially 
sweet, caught in two sets of enraptured ears: 'It ain't such a long, long way to 
Tipperary, the way that leads to the Nobel prize.' As they rubbed their hands 
self-gratulantly and walked upon the fleecy clouds a thousand miles at a step. 
Hark! What was that'? What cut the very air (that air so sweet and never so 
warm) from under the twain worthies? What soughing sound was that, so like 
unto a bursted balloon, causing a giddy vortex which whirled them so almost 
sacrilegiously down to earth again! It was this (not in exact language, but in 
actual effect) from Germany : 'America, I have always been your friend, and 
am anxious always to be. I freely forgive your acting (not technically, of course, 
but in reality; for things that are equal to the same thing are equal to each 
other) as the ally to England with her Slav and Jap connections and hordes of 
hired black-and-tan hellions, by furnishing her and them murder tools to destroy 
me; and this in face of the fact that you claim to be Anglo-Saxon, and both the 
Angles and Saxons were good Germans; and the further fact, one that 



AMERICA'S DUTY AND OPPORTUNITY. 

'Should speak like Angels, trumpet-tongued against 
The deep damnation of my taking off' 

in such a way — the tremendous fact that whereas there are less than 500,000 
English-Americans among you, only fifteen per cent of them naturalized, there are 
more than 25,000,000 German-Americans among you, eighty-five per cent, of them 
naturalized; good, worthy, industrious, patriotic citizens; few of them in your 
jails, alms houses, or insane hospitals; and the further fact that my people helped 
you in 1776, and my American children would help you again, even today, against 
Germany, were she in the wrong — I say, America, I have been, in spite of your 
treatment, a true friend; but when you make a threat like that, assuming I am 
either dastard enough to let my people starve by reason of your letting England fly 
your flag or coward enough to risk the consequences of refusal to obey such a 
demand — the time has come at last for us to understand each other. I shall not 
alter one scintilla of my announced policy. If your boats stay out of the war 
zone (which they can do all right, if they only will, and reach port safely in every 
case) they will be in no danger from any mines of mine; if you will not permit 
(and I don't see what consideration, human or divine, could induce you to sub- 
mit to such a degradation anyhow) — I say, if you will not permit England to fly 
your flag, no ship of yours need fear any submarine of mine. So do your talking 
with England. It's up to you and her.' 

"Ye Gods, what a call down ! It meant war — so everybody was bound to think. 
The hoodlums on the street whispered it ominously — the physically-unfit-for- 
service of them howled it aloud with raucous joy. (Excepting them, there were 
comparatively few, however, of those three or four millions who, foaming at the 
mouth with insatiate thirst for war against Germany seven months ago, fairly 
shrieked for the chance to volunteer.) 

"But the war didn't come. I had wronged Wilson and Bryan in my thoughts. 
They were simply trying to help England by scaring Germany. They didn't count 
on a call down. The bluffers were caught with a four-flush. They tucked their 
tails and put it all up to England — right where it belonged from the start. And 
there it is today. We must not call our administration cowards. Their hench- 
men would call it treason in us. So, let us assume that it was simply a case of 
bluff' and that henceforth that double expectation of that Nobel Prize will suffice 
to keep us out of the red maelstrom of war. But, oh, how they were fetched to 
their senses! With what a jerk. Oh what a jolt was that my countrymen! It 
jarred the Lion's skin off of their backs, and showed them up in their stark naked- 
ness. So, to keep their future fiascoes from the public, they have instituted a 
course of secret negotiations with England. One of those harmless little con- 
versations, like England's with France and Belgium. They don't want the boys to 
see them when they fall down and display themselves. Boys, let's promise 'em not 
to laugh anymore. (And this is the crew sub-microscopic Hal Flood and oleagin- 
ous Jim Mann say we ought to let handle this tremendous situation for us without 
a single question from us; nay, rather we should close our eyes completely and 
stuff cotton in our ears, adopting as our motto the optimistic assurance of Mark 
Twain's canal boat hero: 'Fear not, but trust in Dollinger, and he will put vou 
through.' ) " 

But friends, seriously, we had a narrow escape at best. Let us run no further 
risk. Let's impress upon Mr. Wilson that we don't want to insult or bluff any- 
body again. Let's make him do now what he should have done at first: Say to 
England: Simply this: "You have repeatedly insulted me and materially 
wronged me time after time. I have filed protest after protest without avail. Pro- 
test time is about out. I haven't many ships, (thanks to my political demagogues) 
and I send you food and munitions in most of them, and Germany never kicks. 
I certainly have the same right to send them to Germany, except that Interna- 
tional Law, which you always repnd'ate when you please, even to your own Lon- 
don Declaration, gives you the legal right (God save the paradox!) to grab and 
confiscate the munitions. But it don't give you the right to grab and confiscate 
the food and other stuff you have been grabbing and confiscating. Now, I have 
stood for all this; but mark me here and now; the limit has at last been reached. 
Germany won't touch my flag unless you hoist it. She won't touch an American 



218 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

boat unless by mistake due to your hoisting my flag. You let my flag strictly 
alone. It belongs to me. I am not your ally as you seem to think. I went to war 
with Mexico merely because a private ctitzen there, an usurper, even, whose official 
existence I wouldn't recognize, refused to salute my flag. That flag is just as 
sacred as it was then, or as it was when you tried to blot it out in 1776 and 1812. 
If you hoist that flag on a single ship of yours, it means war to the death with 
me." 

And to Germany this: "I have told England it means war if she hoists my 
flag; and I now tell you it means war if you fire on it with shot or torpedo. To 
safeguard us both, I will arrange with you an honest, invariably secret system of 
signals by which you may distinguish my ships from England's." 

Mr. Wilson evidently didn't know much about the German character to sup- 
pose them so easily bull-dozed. He had probably never read the immortal words 
of Bismarck: 

"I should like to admonish these foreign editors to discontinue their threats. 

"They do not lead anywhere. The threats which we see made — not by the 
governments, but by the press — are really incredibly stupid, when we stop to re- 
flect that the people making them imagine they could frighten the proud and 
powerful German empire by certain intimidating figures made by printer's ink 
and shallow words. People should not do this. It would then be easier for us 
to be more obliging to our two neighbors. Every country after all is sooner or 
later responsible for the windows which its press has smashed. The bill will 
be rendered some day, and will consist of the ill-feeling of the other country. 
We are easily influenced — perhaps too easily — by love and kindness, but surely 
never by threats! We Germans fear God, and naught else in the world! It is 
this fear of God which makes us love and cherish peace. If in spite of this any- 
body breaks the peace, he will discover that the ardent patriotism of 1813, which 
called to the standards the entire population fo Prusisa — weak, small, and drained 
to the marrow as it then was — has today become the common property of the 
whole German nation. Attack the German nation anywhere, and you will find it 
armed to a man, and every man with the firm belief in his heart: God will be 
with us." 

Mr. Wilson made a great start when he said: "The United States must be 
neutral in fact as well as in name, and we must put a curb on every transaction 
which might give a preference to one party to the struggle over another." 

To me his subsequent attitude seems utterly inexplicable. It would seem 
that his indiff"erence to the feelings of German-Americans must be due either to 
an ossified brain, a calloused heart, or a cicatrized soul. Politician as he is, surely 
he must have at least known that 25,000,000 people under his governance had an 
interest supreme, utterly immeasurable in the conflict. lie surely sho sld have 
considered the feelings of that many mere casual associates. But these people were 
his const, tiients, part and parcel with him of our great American Institution. INIul- 
tiplied hundreds of thousands of them had voted both to nominate and elect him 
President. He was either hypnotized or else whollv lacking in the most element- 
ary conception of gratitude, to say nothing of the comities of civil life, the 
primal instincts of associational amenity. It does seem that he might have at 
least said to the manufacturers of the murder-tools: "We are the great peace- 
nation. We should help, therefore, to keep alive and not to kill. We shoild send 
food and not gims to the belligerents— poor fellows, whatever the criminal folly 
of their rulers, theij are not to blame — they are human like ourselves More- 
over, we profess to be nei^!«;^al. Neutrality means ne iherness; neither helping 
nor hurting either side. One rotten mediaeval chunk of a mass of marine custom, 
mere water-logged flotsam cast up by the tide, not binding having no i^iherent 
power of enforcement, gives neutrals (what a grotesque paradox!) the right, if 
they wish, to sell munitions of war to the belligerents. It is a relic of barbarism. 
Won't you please promise me to act the civilized christian neutrals we a-1 so unc- 
tuously profess to be. and not send a single murder-tool to the be^Ugere^ts? More- 
over these murder-tools will be used to slaughter and spatter the kith and kin 
of 25,000.000 of our own fellow-citizens, good people, who help to pay on- taxes, 
develop o'lr industries, and fight our wars." 

And if the murder-toolsters failed to so promise and perform he should have 



AMERICA'S DUTY AND OPPORTUNITY. 219 

demanded of Congress to enact it into law. It would have been applauded and 
copied throughout Christendom. America would have been the future toast of 
the world. The name of Wilson would have been immortalized. 

But Wilson fell down. His opportunity slipped. His only chance now is 
to partly retrieve his awful failure. 

I believe the stark truth is he has been subconsciously at least, playing cheap 
politics. Seeing the insane fury of the other 75,000,000 against the Germans at 
the outset he has pandered to their fatuous folly. Now, at last, after seven long 
months cooling time, after these 75,000,000 are beginning to see what a herd of 
four-flushing half-cockers they have been, after they begin to realize what un- 
mitigated asses they have been in the sight of angels and men; after the thunder 
of German victory-guns gets so loud as to drown the combined lies of London 
and Petrograd and paralyzes partisan tongues; now at length a great psycholog- 
ical hiatus is in the air. A change is about to take place. The 75,000,000 are be- 
ginning to flop to the 20,000,000. Wilson will wake up! 

Fellow-Americans, make him awake fully. Keep him prodded with a sharp 
stick. 

Plain Brother-Americans, whom our trusted teachers betrayed or deceived; 
what of us? Think what we have done. Don't let's wait for German victory- 
guns to jar the scales from our eyes. Let's throw them off ourselves. 

We have acted badly, brutally, outrageously, towards God and man. We have 
wronged 25,000,000 good neighbors. We did it innocently, in a sense. As the 
English Church ritual commands: "We submitted ourselves to our teachers, 
spiritual pastors, and masters." We thought they would lead us right and we 
trusted ourselves to them. Now, it is up to us to repair the wrong, to make moral 
restitution. Our 25,000,000 citizens whom we have wronged will not ask us to 
undergo the least embarrassment. They will be content, aye, happy, if we hence- 
forth simply do right, without a word of acknowledgment, or of expression of 
desire to atone for our wrong to them. But, Brothers-in-the-wrong, let us do the 
manly thing. Let us come clean. "An honest confession is good for the soul." 
Let us "come across" all the way. 

Yes, Fellow-Americans, we have done a great wrong to 25,000,000 of our fel- 
low-citizens. We have jeered at them, piled insult and contumely upon them; 
wished them humiliated personally and all their kith and kin slaughtered even by 
unspeakable Cossacks and every form of hellion super-hellions ever hired. And 
if unfortunately any should survive, we wished them subjugated and crushed 
beyond recovery. They had done us no wrong. They came from a g'eat and 
noble people. The whole firmament of civilized History blazes with the teeming 
constellations of their contributions to human progress. They we're unable to 
speak to us because a cowardly enemy, afraid of the truth, cut their cable. 

Instead of waiting to hear their side; as thoughtless as cockneys, as mer- 
curial as Frenchmen, we swallowed, like greedy suckers, the dope dished out 
from London and Petrograd and their American annex for murder-tools— Pitts- 
grad. We took snap judgment; we went off half-cocked. 

Fellow-Americans, I believe we are fundamentally honest, however foolishly 
impulsively we may be. Let us shell down the corn. Let us acknowledge that 
we have been flim-flammed. Let us tell the whole world we are sorry for it. Let 
us right the wrong; right it practically and effectively, not by mere word of mouth. 
Let us rise up in our might and speak to Mr. Wilson and Congress in no uncertain 
tones and demand that they place at once upon the statute books the great Ameri- 
can Doctrine that America shall no longer act either the hypocrite or barbarian : 
that as a nation professing to be neutral it shall actually be neutral and not let 
murder-tools go out to help one side and hurt the other; aye, as a nation profess- 
ing peace and human love, it shall claim the right to send all I fe-pieserv.ng ma- 
terials not merely to one but to both sides of the combatants. 

If we do this, we will atone for our wrong and the whole civilized world in 
the future will rise up and call us blessed. 

We should do it on two broad general grounds, viz: First, as a matter of 
public policy, to keep from piling up against ourselves for future account a right- 
eous enmity on the part of those we injure. Second, from mere common practical 



220 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

consistency in order, as reiterated, to preserve at least a semblance of the neutral- 
ity we so volubly profess. 

Friends, try as we may, we can't get away from the basic fact that "Things 
that are equal to the same thing are equal to each other." And why should we try 
to get away, or wish to get away from it? It is the basic, bed rock of mathematics 
and logic. It is the foundation stone of science, philosophy, civilization, progress. 
Without it we would be brutes: we couldn't build one fact upon another, we 
couldn't reason, we couldn't say 2+2=4; we couldn't compare, correlate, co- 
ordinate, or classify, analogize, or reason. It is the sine qua non of intellectual 
and spirtitual evolution. 

Its opposite is Casuistry, another name for Technicality. It spells devolution 
instead of evolution, tear-down instead of up-build. It was invented to conceal, 
evade, or overthrow the truth. It is resorted to to confuse either an opponent or 
a third party whose sympathy is desired. It is not a Teutonic product. It is 
essentially, in all its phases, distinctively Latin. The English, however, with 
their inherited Germanic strength of raw intellect superadded to their Latin 
infusion, have carried it to its highest development. In fact our whole tissue 
of legal technicality was born in a London fog — a pettifog, at that. 

Capacity to distinguish between truth and casuistry, between the basic axiom 
that "things that are equal to the same thing are equal to each other," and a mere 
twaddling technicality, is what distinguishes a scientist from a sciolist, a phil- 
osopher from a pedant or a pettifogger. 

Now, Americans, shall we allow our brains to be befogged with casuistric 
technicality? Shall we call ourselves neutrals when we are not neutrals? But, 
Mr. Wilson answers, "Neutrality has a certain specific meaning, whether consis- 
tent with its original literal meaning or not; and I am in that sense neutral; — 
in fact, I must, in that sense permit munitions of war sold to the enemies of 
Germany in order to preserve neutrality." (God save the mark!) What a hope- 
less brain that is, fellow-countrymen! He wholly overlooks the basic fact that 
Neutralilty means Neitherness: neither helping nor hurting one side or the other. 
There has been and can be no modification of that proposition. He fundamentally 
confuses strict neutrality with modified neutrality through international usage. 
Having made this basic mistake, he even more grotesquely confounds compulsion 
with permission. For, even modified neutrality as developed by international 
usage, doesn't compel (God save the mark again!) us to help one side, particularly 
if so helping actually hurts the other side — at best (or rather worst) it only permits 
it. And we in America shouldn't even permit it. If they keep mumbling about 
Neutrality and can't clear their brains of the cobwebs; if the term has taken on 
a lot of hampering excrescences; let's use the good old Anglo-Saxon Neitherness 
and adopt it as the American Doctrine. Nobody can misunderstand that. And let 
us enforce it. But, Mr. Wilson will answer: "The sale of these munitions will 
make us prosperous." (In other words, bring us blood money). That in its 
essence is the foulest, most diabolical doctrine ever announced. Hundreds of 
thousands of the blood-kin of 25,000,000 of our best citizens will be slaughtered; 
by munitions "made in America;" a great people subjugated; the world turned 
into a vast ringed, streaked, and striped saturnalia; all for a few dollars in a 
very few pockets. It would be monstrous if it actually brought prosperity; but, 
it won't bring prosperity. It has been going on for over six months and who is 
prosperous? 



IMPORTANT 

But althonf^h neutrality observance is important, aye, imperative, there are 
three other higher grounds than mere neutrality. We should prohibit these mur- 
der tools from being shipped out, first, for our own intrinsic honor, our reputa- 
tion for Moral Integrity. We profess to be a great peace-loving nation; hence 
we should not permit war tools to be shipped out of our country to murder 
people with whom we are at peace, and who further claim they can stop the war 
in six months if we stop shipping munitions. Second, we owe it to a great and 
noble people; a people who gave the world religious liberty; a people who gave 



AMERICA'S DUTY AND OPPORTUNITY. 



221 



the world civil and individual liberty. A people who gave the rolling world re- 
splendent tier upon tier of glorious Souls, from Luther, Goethe, and Kant, to 
Helmholz, Virchow, and Haeckel; who gladly do unceasing, amazing, prodigious 
masses of work forever for the world's benefit, with only the most meagre recom- 
pense. 

A people in whose perpetuation the whole world, (even the blind fools who 
are trying to exterminate them) are most vitally interested. 




From "Der Wahre Jacob." 
Pious Uncle Sam as the Angel of Peace. 



From "Ulk." 
Uncle Sam's Neutral ty. 



And third, because we should have the proper consideration for the feelings 
of 25,000,000 of our own best citizens in addition to perhaps 10,000,000 more of 
their sympathizers. This, of itself, should be enough and more than enough, 
aye, Ten Thousand times more than enough. It should be Ten Thousand times 
more than enough even if they were a lower order of beings instead of an honest, 
industrious, producing, all-around superior class of citizens. 

Fellow-Americans, don't let them fool you with casuistric quibbles. Don't 
let subsidized special pleaders scare you by stage- whispering: "It is uncon- 
stitutional." There is not a single syllable or letter in the Constitution against it. 
The whole spirit, genius and trend of the Constitution is just the other way. 

Don't let them bewilder you with technical jargon. Don't let them draw a 
distinction between "we' 'and "ourselves" and get away with it. When muni- 
tions made in the United States are permitted by the United States to be shipped 
from the United States either directly or indirectly to help one side and hurt 
the other, the United States is guilty of it. Things that are equal to the same 
thing are equal to each other. All the lies, sophistries, and contemptible techni- 
calities, all the "ifs" and "buts" in the world are made in the effort to get around 
that bedrock of mathematics and Logic. The one supreme fact is that these guns, 
explosives, and dum-dums will slay dozens of thousands of human beings; they 
are made in our Peace-prating United States expressly for the slayers. Thous- 
ands whom they are made to slay are good people; hence juggle with words as 
much as you please, it is all frightfully, hideously, heinously wrong, and should 
be stopped at once. 



222 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

Even precedent speaks out to us and says that we are really breaking in- 
stead of following the rule. We prohibited these shipments in the Napoleonic 
Wars, we did it in connection with the recent troubles in Mexico, and all the 
European countries now neutral, have done it in this war. 

And when our at-heart honest Americans do wake up — then, oh, ye narrow 
and mean! O ye discredited! You who pretentiously claimed the right to teach 
and guide! 0, ye ignoble, intellectual fakirs and spiritual bunco-steerers, — ye 
have fallen down in your own filth. Go to your holes and cleanse yourselves, and 
put on the sack-cloth of repentance and ashes of spiritual disinfection; or else ooze 
on out eternally into your appropriate oblivion. Think what you have done! 
Here in the greatest crisis that ever shook the planet; when issues involving the 
color, aye, the very life of civilization itself were at stake; when the destiny of 
mankind, possibly of the Universe, hung in the balance; when you should at least 
have invoked calm, judicial consideration of all claims and impartial reservation 
of judgment for yourselves and all others until those claims could be fairly and 
fully presented; — you went off half-cocked, took snap-judgment on a goodly 
people whose ancestors were, mainly, your own ancestors; you fired the riff-raff 
with incendiary utterances against a goodly man of Peace; slandering him, his 
heir, and goodly people without limit, until the thoughtless majority were ready 
for war and hoped in their hearts for the assassination of the Kaiser and the 
utter subjugation of his splendid people — a people moreover who had 25,000,000 
kinfolks living among you as your next door neighbors, who had never wronged 
you, who had always helped you, who were modest and unobtrusive "past all 
understanding," who stood for all your airs and affectations of superiority with 
a smiling forbearance, that you, in your brutal ignorance, thought was a recog- 
nition of the validity of your asinine pretensions; — aye, as against them, 25,000,000 
of sturdy, honest, industrious, citizens, with eighty-five per cent, of even their 
foreign-born naturalized, you listened to and sided with a nation that twice tried 
to strangle your own nation in its infancy, a nation that has less than 500,000 of 
its citizens among you, and not over fifteen per cent, of them naturalized; and you 
applauded when this overweening would-be strangler of your grandparents 
brought the Slav and Jap into the conflict and hired all of earth's black-and-tan 
hellions to aggrandize the said Slav and Jap, thus coloring future civilization 
yellow or brindle-striped, — and all in order to murder the soldiers and starve the 
innocent old men, women, and children of a goodly people, of pure stock, because 
said goodly people were a rival in the marts of trade, with whom, because of sheer 
inferiority, the decadent Englisher could not compete; — ah, yes, you who ap- 
plauded and had us whom you essayed to teach to applaud, when we sent to this 
old would-be strangler of our grandparents and to the Slav and Jap and Turco, 
Sepoy, and Sengalese hundreds of millions of dollars worth of murder-tools to 
slaughter brave men of pure strain with and bring about stai^ation of the old men, 
women and children — I say, your day is done; out with you! You are henceforth 
a hiss, a byword, a reproach in men's mouths. Henceforth, dead be you to the 
world. Let no one say of a single one of you: "He is not dead but sleepeth." Not 
so. He is so dead he stiiiketh — and to the stars. 

And now, fellow-Americans, having appealed to your intellectual and spirit- 
ual sensibilities, let me give you a few Pocket-Book Pointers. 

****** ** 

THINKS HE'S THE UNITED STATES. 

Pudgy Charley Schwab rushing back to the United States frantically yelled 
as he lit: "Hurrah, prosperity has come. I have just secured $300,000,000.00 
of orders for munitions of war." 

Let everybody else who has been made prosperous stand on his head until 
counted: — ah, yes, we have you, eely Andy, and your fellow-steel barons of 
Bethlehem, Pittsgrad, and Gary wicz— all right; Doc. Eliot, little Dicky Harding, 
alimonious Elbert, Poultice Bigelow, Norman, Collier's and you other press gen- 
tlemen who wish your names withheld; quick work — next! 

Now, Mr. American farmer. What has this war done for you? You, Mr. wheat- 
raiser, whose product has gone higher than $L50 per bushel — long after it had left 



AMERICA'S DUTY AND OPPORTUNITY. 223 

your hands, however. What is your future prospect? You can't hope to get war 
prices in the future, even during the war, if we let England seize and confiscate 
all we ship; because Germany is our best customer. Do you think because the 
middlemen — who got it early out of your hands and sent it to England and 
France and now have the profits on it in their jeans — (at the same time depleting 
our own supply here) tell you you should side with England even unto war, you 
ought to do it, eh? If you get into war, you get Hell instead of wheat. Dead sure, 
if war comes, we who don't want it shall insist that those who do shall be the 
ones to go to the front. And we propose to see to it, too. And we'll do the wheat 
raising while they do the hell-raising. But why should your sypmathy, even, 
be with England? As aforesaid, she is trying to keep you out of your best foreign 
market, Germany and Austria-Hungary. But how about your home market? Who 
are your best, in fact 90% of all of your customers here? The cotton raiser and 
the laboring man. But, to be able to buy wheat, the cotton farmer must get a 
profit on his cotton. England is his worst enemy. Even in time of peace, she 
is his great, in fact, his only competitor. She raises enormous quantities of it in 
India and Egypt, and is constantly extending her planting operations. God only 
knows what she will do, if we let her and Japan keep encroaching until they 
plant Mexico, Central and South America with it. 

But, how is it in time of war? Well, you know that well enough. Germany 
and Austria-Hungary want nearly 3,000,000 bales, and for many months have 
been offering from 16% to 20 cents per pound. Allowing 3 cents per pound 
($15.00 per bale) which is really twice as high as it should be for hauling, ii 
would still yield from 13% to 17 cents. But we can't get it to Germany and Aus- 
tria-Hungary. W^hy? Because we haven't the ships. Why haven't we; can't we 
buy the German ships now interned in our ports? Oh, no. Why? Because 
England says she would prefer that we should not. Why don't we do it anyhow? 
Because our Congressmen are afraid to — or something. I must give the Devil 
his dues and say that Wilson has been trying to get Congress to let him buy these 
ships, but Congress won't let him do it. Some of his eneimes charge, however, 
it is a ruse on his part to get food and munitions to England and her allies: on 
the theory that German submarines won't let England's or its allies' ships haul 
these things, but will have to let the ships of neutral Uncle Sam haul what they 
please. 

Cotton-raisers, there is something dead up the Creek. 

Here is what Gov. Colquitt of Texas has to say about it: 

■'England stopped American shipments until the English spinners had bought their supply 
at 6 1-2 cents a pound and stored it in Texas and other Southern warehouses. Then England 
consented to declare cotton contraband, and France followed suit a day or two later. Our 
government weakly submitted to England's dictation, playing into the hands of the English 
spinners and betraying the American cotton growers as completely as il this country were 
an English vassal ftate. 

"If I had been President I would have served notice on England's Premiier that our foreign 
trade in cotton and other non-contraband commodil} es was going forward with or without 
England's consent, and if necessary I would have sent American ironclads to England's door 
to enfore that notice. 

"The Administration's repeal of the Panama Canal tolls exemption in violation of the 
party's national platform was another weak surrender to England. If free tolls for American 
ships had not been repealed hundreds of American-owned ships flying a foreign flag would 
have come under the American flag to get the benefit of exemption. 

"Imports are diminished because the European nations are storing their products for 
their own use, while our exports are at the mercy of English warships blockading our coasts. 
TVe have suffered a loss of $350,000,000 in ten months, only four of which came within the 
period of the war. This money is coming out of the pockets of the farmer, the toibacco grower, 
the cotton planter, the merchant and the wage-earner. It represents what Germany and Aus- 
tria-Hungary buy of us when there are no English cruisers to prevent us from supplying their 
demands. To cover resultant deficits the people are further mulcted of $200,000,000 special 
war taxes. Our gold is going to England to enable her to continue the war. The snug sum 
of $116,500,000 has gone in that way in five months." 

England won't even let a private citizen buy one of these ships and send 
cotton on it to Germany. She says she will seize the Dacia, just such a ship, en 
route there right now. (Since writing this France actually has seized her.) And 



224 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

dear, dreaming old Dr. Wilson ought by now to know that even if he should buy 
those ships England wouldn't let him send cotton or anything else in them to 
Germany. That's exactly the way she's been doing him about everything else, 
since the war started, and why shouldn't she continue? But, maybe, some mean 
Republican will say Wilson knows that anyhow and is just making a great big stall 
at it, pretending he wants it to pass, but knowing it won't (even arranging it that 
way) in order to pull the cotton over the eyes of the cotton farmer and get his 
vote. 

So, Mr. Cotton-raiser, it is your friend England who keeps the price of your 
cotton down. If you will recollect a few weeks back, when Mr. Wilson mustered 
up enough courage to smilingly whisper to England (a mere stall — those malic- 
ious Republicans claimed it) to "please, sir, won't you kindly be just a trifle, a 
wee bit more lenient about grabbing and confiscating our ships and stuff," cotton 
went up a cent a pound in a week. Get him to protest again, gentlemen, just about 
in a tone of healthy thunder, and then you'll see cotton do something. 

So, Mr. Wheat-raiser, if Mr. Cotton-raiser can't sell his cotton at a profit, how 
can he buy wheat? He can't. But he can and will do something, viz: go to rais- 
ing wheat. He has already started it this season on a goodly scale. 

Another thing. You didn't get the profit on your last year's crop you are 
given credit for. 

A Kentucky farmer writing to the New York World, asserts vigorously that to 
the farmer has gone less than half the market price of the wheat, and to point him 
out as to blame for six-cent bread and the other evils of high prices "is an imposi- 
tion on the consumer that is criminal." 

The Topeka Capital criticizes an Eastern statement that "the Kansas wheat- 
crop this year netted to the State $100,000,000 more than last August," and re- 
marks : 

"What it netted Kansas is another question. Some of it was sold for C5 cents, some for 
75, and some was held for $1, and sold off at that figaire. Necessarily it was the farmers who 
needed the extra profit who least made it. Such is the way of life. The farmers most in 
need got 65 cents for their wheat." 

"When the farmer gets only sixty-five cents for wheat that sells for $1.65, it is natural 
that many should wish to know who gets the difference, and why?" 

And you'll get still less for this year's crop if you don't look out. You've all 
planted a big crop. The cotton-raiser will raise his own. The city consumer 
won't be able to buy. Above all you won't have any foreign market; for, England 
has declared that no food shall go to Germany, your best customer. 

Now, Mr. Wheat-raiser, as to your main customer, the laboring man. He 
cant' buy wheat without money. He can't get the money without work. He can't 
get work on account of England. Why? Because in the first place our cotton 
mill laborers are out of work because England makes the price as explained so 
low, the factories won't make the cheap new product until they can dispose of 
the old. Besides nobody is able to buy even what they have on hand. 

As to the other laborers, they can't get work because the things we make and 
ship to Germany (in the hundreds of millions of dollars) can't be gotten to her. 
Neither can the things we used to send in German ships to the rest of the world; 
because, England wants to capture all of that trade and hence won't let her ships 
haul it from America, her competitor, if she can send it herself. So, the vicious 
cycle never ends. 

So, Mr. Wheat-grower, England is going not merely to starve Germany, but in 
so doing to ruin you, aye, to starve you, unless you can live by wheat alone. Sh^t 
is similarly starving by slow degrees hundreds of thousands of our unemployed. 
And, ot think, we stand for it without a murmur! 

And, you, Mr. Laboring Man, and Mr. American generally; think of this tre- 
mendous fact! Nearly all of our rural population is going to the cities. It is a 
frightful phenomenon from almost any point of view. But, for weal or woe, it is 
nevertheless a fact; and its consequences must be grappled with. These great 
multitudes must work. If they all do, they will produce more than can be con- 



AxMERICA'S DUTY AND OPPORTUNITY. 



225 



sumed at home, and that means work must stop. Then what? Either starvation 
or bloody revolution. But, can't it be prevented? Yes. How? Just as England, 
Germany and Japan are doing it, viz.: by building up a big foreign trade. 

Now, what is the main future market? China, with its hundreds of millions. 
They particularly need our cotton. A Chinaman dotes on cotton clothes. And 
they need, generally speaking, all of our other products. And they need our sym- 
pathy and assitance to enable them to grow more prosperous and more able ta 
buy our products. But, do you know we are about to lose all of our trade with 
China? The first year after Japan entered Manchuria our cotton trade there fell 
off $20,000,000.00. Japan simply took it over. And she still stays there. She 
was only to be there temporarily she said. But she has taken root. She simply 
lied. Nor is she ashamed of it. Her exemplar is her ally, England. England's 
highest type of statesmen, Salisbury, Grey, Asquith, lie by note; and the rest of 
the world not only tolerates it, but the Bryan contingent of America actually 
emulate it. So, Japan feels altogether smug when she promises to evacuate Man- 
churia and Korea, and Kiauchau, but swings on and annexes them by degrees. 
Thus our great market goes glimmering. If we continue to tolerate it: we, who 
demanded and were, by explicit treaty solemnly promised, both by England and 
Japan, an open door in China; aye, we who solemnly gave our word to China that 
she should have an open door; — if we continue to tolerate such encroachments 
soon the door already half way closed will be closed completely. Japan in 
fact, is making arrangements to that end right now, discarding the old gradual 
encroachment plan — that is too slow and tedious — and is about to abruptly grab 
the whole thing. She has recently submitted 21 demands on China, and that 
means the jig is up. 



AN ENGLISH CARTOON. 



A JAPANESE CARTOON. 




John Bull to Japan. — "You keep your eye on From "Osaka Puck." 

Uncle Sam there till I've settled this job." "The time has come to test the edge of my 

From "Sydney Times." sword. Courage — and to work!" 

Why dares she do it in face of America's own enormous conflicting industrial 
interest and America's solemn pledge to China? Why is Japan so bold, as to thus 
grab Uncle Sam by the beard and say: "Keep still and take your dose!" Does 
she think we'll stand for it? She does — more, she knows it. How? Bryan! ! 

Americans, don't you recall that onl> a year or two ago we were constantly in 
trouble with Japan because of her arrogance toward the Pacific Coast States. 
She aff'ronted us in every way. Roosevelt stood for it. Then came Bryan. He 
went out there himself to pacify our people. He couldn't do it. His mission 
was a failure. But, lo, a change. Japan drops her truculent and dictatorial man- 
ner. Why? There is, there can be, only one explanation. She had received cer- 
tain satisfactory assurances from Bryan. He had made a quiet but complete sur^ 
render. The Pacific Coast would not be bothered any more — at least for awhile — 
provided we would turn over China to Japan and England. The war with Japan^ 
which our ablest military experts and broadest political philosophers had been 



226 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



predicting, didn't materialize. It was averted by what Mr. Bryan thinks was a 
triumph of diplomacy, a surrender of something enormous to Japan. Of course 
he denies it. But what other hypothesis can explain the amazing change in the 
situation. Japan's stopping her encroachments or bluffs on our Pacific Coast; the 
administration's cautiously sounded note of leaving the Philippines; and now, 
Japan's boldly bearding Uncle Sam in China — even while her only ally, England, is 
up to her neck in a losing war. Friends, it means something. Japan knows she 
runs no risk. The only way she could know it would be assurance from head- 
quarters. She has or thinks she has that assurance. 




From the Birmingham "Ag-e-Herald 



True, Bryan denies it. But the facts speak for themselves with a logic abso- 
lutely inexorable. Bryan and Wilson have simply agreed to turn all Asia over 
to Japan and England and to pull out from there, or at least Japan thinks so. 



AMERICA'S DUTY AND OPPORTUNITY. 227 

Thus we break our solemn covenant with China and lose the three-fold great- 
est prospective market in the world. We can't hope for much from Central and 
South America, because England has persistently poisoned those countries against 
us for years. So, what have we left, in the way of a market? Practically noth- 
ing — and over half of our hundred millions of people living in the towns, and ab- 
solutely requiring industrial occupation to live, and steadily rushing into the 
towns in constantly increasing numbers every year. There is no market for their 
product, hence no work for them, hence they must starve. They won't do that. 
What, then? Riot and revolution; a change in our whole economic organization. 

Frieinds, our people elect our so-called statesmen. The so-called statesmen 
make our laws. The so-called statesmen represent the people. The people do 
their own selecting. Hence, if the so-called statesmen are, as a whole or majority, 
venal or treacherous, or mere fatuous asses, it simply signifies that the people 
are degenerate and incompetent to govern themselves. Friends, does that spell us? 
Supose Wilson and Bryan and Congress do put this thing over on us. They de- 
liberately bargain away our markets for a pottage-mess called temporary peace, 
and in so doing throw upon our children revolutionu, a revolution their own 
guilty selves will probably live to see. And just to think! The only way to save 
those markets is to assert our rights; and then they say we are too weak to assert 
them; and then, when a few patriots are brave enough to advocate making our- 
selves stronger, these fatuous leaders oppose it and prevent it. Friends, it is 
simply a case of very small and bumptious leaders essaying to handle a very large 
proposition. Let's wake up, and wake them up. Let's say to Bryan right now: 
let us see those papers and let us know everything that is not on paper — and not 
merely everything written or said, but everything the things written or said or 
left unsaid actually mean. Don't come any shenannagan with us — out with it all I 
And let us say to Japan : reduce right now to writing a solemn statement that if 
Germany loses you will evacuate Kiauchow and turn it back to China, and will 
take no more of China and will admit the United States to unrestricted trade in 
all of China even that part you now usurp (God save the paradox!) and if you 
fail to keep a single item of your contract it shall mean war with Uncle Sam. 

As sure as fate there is a hell brew boiling for America in the pot of fate if 
Germany loses. 

Now or never is the time to have it out with Japan, because now is the time 
she cant' fight — now while she is at war and her ally, England, is ham-strung. 

Her ally, England, I say. Yes, and that has a world of meaning. Should 
England whip Germany, good-bye Uncle Sam's Monroe Doctrine. Why? Be- 
cause Japan wants Mexico right now — which means Central and South America 
later. America's only breakwater against Japan's aspirations on the American 
continent henceforth will be Germany. But, why would England, if successful 
ever Germany, fight her own "Cousins across the water?" Merely for three sep- 
arately sufficient reasons: first, she wants a slice herself; second, she not merely 
doesn't love her hybrid cousins, etc., but has a contempt for them which she 
doesn't try to conceal, in fair weather; and such being her mood she would, not 
merely as a matter of future expediency, but from genuine gusto, cripple or crush 
her aforesaid cousins, etc.; third, even if she herself had no designs, and really 
wanted her cousins, etc., to grow and become a powerful rival, vet, when Japan 
called England SHE WOULD HAVE TO COME. Why, a blind man could see it. 
When England called, didn't Japan have to come? It's a poor rule that won't 
work both ways. 

Americans, while our hyphenated friends are organizing for an America 
for Americans, hadn't we too better be organizing for the same thing? Let's do it 
and at once. If Mr. Wilson can't see the situation, or sees it and won't move, let's 
put a coal on the terrapin's back. Let's make him see that if he don't move and 
move right and move briskly, he won't get a corporal's guard in his race for 
President. 

Laboring men of America! You are the ones to start this. You are the main 
prospective sufferers. You haven't work now. How will it be with your chil- 
dren, with the influx to the cities increasing every year? True, we can and should 
imitate enlightened Germany which has done so much for the laboring man — 
twice as much as all others combined. 



228 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

"An English workingman is quoted as saying, when asked by his employer to enlist for 
the war, 'They've done a lot for workingmen over in Germany: accident insurance, old-age 
pensions, and all of that — what do we want to fight the Kaiser for? We'd just about as soon 
he under Billy as George.' " 

But these ameliorating laws will be only palliatives. If you can't get regular 
markets, you can't get regular work. If you cant* get work you can't get labor 
insurance, because the insurance can only go to those who have worked a certain 
amount. What matters it to you that you only have to work eight hours, when, 
as a matter of fact, try hard as you will, you can't get one hour's work? Friends, 
you cant' get away from that foreign market proposition. True, a demagogue will 
tell you that we have a sufficient market here at home. W^hy, then, are you out of 
work. "0," he will say, "the war done it." But we ain't at war (at least openly.) 
Besides, it was that way before the war; and it will always be that way until we 
increase our foreign commerce. 

Friends, let us centre on a few vital propositions. Let us demand: First, 
that America shall have foreign markets, and a real navy to protect them. 

Second, that being a peace-loving, but not a cowardly people, nor a sordid 
people we propose to have peace if we have to fight for it; and we don't want 
blood-money; therefore, we shall never permit munitions of war to be shipped 
during war to any of the countries at war, or to any other countries that will let 
the countries at war have them. 

Third, that, being thus peace-loving and commercial, we are always glad 
to speak and work for peace; we won't wage any war ourselves unless we have 
to, and we will do our best to keep the others out of it; — but if they get crazy and 
start to fighting anyhow, by the eternal, their fighting shall not interfere with a 
single dollar's worth of our commerce. 

Friends, this is a platform every red-blooded, real American, hyphenated or 
otherwise, can stand flat-footed on. Let's build it right now; and take it to the 
Republican leaders — take it to them first, because they are not handicapped with 
the Wilson sins of omission and commission; and, hence, are in better shape for 
success from the start. Don't accept honeyed words or ambiguous promises from 
them. Don't let slick Jim Mann fool you with his: "I am with you, but you know 
we must give the administration a free hand." Make them toe the mark. If they 
won't come across, with a square, unequivocal, absolute "Yes," take it to W^ilson. 
If he don't; or, if he promises but doesn't, within a reasonable limit — then make 
a new party with the slogan: "AMERICA FOR AMERICANS;" and call it the 
AMERICAN party, and incorporate a goodly array of progressive planks of inter- 
nal policy, and go before the people — and then there will be something doing. The 
dry bones will rattle. The fossils and demagogues will have to stand from under. 
Americans will be regenerated to red-bloodedness once more. 



CHAPTER XL 
WHY GERMANY IS BOUND TO WLN 



^ 




"Whfle yet one drop of lifeblood flows, A common sight in Berlin. 

The sword shall never know repose; 
While yet one arm the shot can pour, 
The foe shall never reach thy shore; 
Rest, Fatherland, for sons of thine 
Will steadfast keep the Wacht am Rhein!" 

I once asked an old negro what sort of 
snake it was he had just killed. He replied: 
"Don't know zackly, boss; but I kinder 'lows 
hit are one er them thar highland water 
moccasins." Now, that just exactly describes 
the sort of military expert I am. I wouldn't 
know^ a war if I met it in the road. 

And, don't you know, I sometimes sus- 
pect I have company in all this? For in- 
stance there is our good instructor, Field 
Marshal, Generalissimo, and Chief-of-Staff 
Arthur BuUard of our foremost military au- 
thority, the Outlook. As a long-distance 
highland-water-military moccasin, he's cer- 
tainly the "real p'ison." 

Then, there's Br'er Simonds, of the Re- 
view of Reviews. 

But, what I am trying, in my halting, 
highland-water way to lay a proper pre- 
dicate for is this: Why can't I expert a 
little on my own hook, just like Br'ers. 
Simonds and Bullard? Ain't I just as much of a United Stateser as they; just as 
far from the scene of strife; just as ignorant of the mere negligible actualities? I 
am. I ain't goin' to introduct any longer. I'm goin' to expertin', I am. I'm goin' 
to souze in, regardless,^ — But, come to think of it, not so altogether regardless 
either; for, before sousing, let me assure you I am not going to tackle those doughty 
English experts like Nolan, Colquhoun, Bennett, Sir Conan, Ruddy, and Somebody- 
Chesterton, (I forget his initials — my memory is getting so treacherous — perhaps 
it is Falstaff ) ; for, don't they always wind up thus: "And when we win, as win 
we must," etc? And ain't they a lot closer to the field? — unless military prudence 
has forced them to evacuate and retreat in good order, since that recent sacrilege 
of the ages. Earth's utmost desecration, the atrocious bombardment of the sacred 
coast of the "Tight Little Isle." 

And ain't English fictionists the world's last word in excellence, military, as 
well as all else? Don't they revel in the distinction of surpassing all others in 
seeming to know what they don't and to be what they ain't? How could the 
pragmatic, fact-loving, truth-groping-after Germans hope to cope with such Super- 
Celestials? How could descendants of mere Luthers, Goethes, Fredericks dare 
hope to survive a struggle with the Tomlinsons, where the aforesaid Tomlinsons 
are covered by a covey of pensters like those that created Sherlock Holmes, and 
Father Brown, and Grand old General Edelsheim, and him whose concept of 
woman reaches the lofty limit of making her the "More deadly of the Species," aye, 
"A rag and a bone and a hank of hair." 

No, I know better than to tackle that bunch. So, here's at Bullard and Si- 
monds. 

Br'er Bullard says: "German war plans were based on a 'dashing attack' in 



Hearing news of a victory. 



230 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

the West which would crush France before Russia could gather force • * * 
Since this was the one hope of German victory, the Germans are defeated." 

Br'er Simonds is a bit more generous than Bullard, for he concedes that while 
this "dashing attack" was the first consideration; yet, if it should fail, German 
strategy probably had still other alternatives. (Thanks for the crumb.) But, he 
still persists: "Germany is bound to lose." 

The truth of the business is that German strategy had probably scores of 
clearly thought-out alternatives to meet all exigencies. The actual crushing of all 
France in a month probably never entered their heads. Having lost seven long, 
precious, vital, utter-irretrievable days and knowing how Russia's military es- 
tablishment had improved through France's prodigious loans and that they 
had England to fight, and that Belgium would resist, they made as desperate 
a drive as possible. No doubt they surpassed their own expectations. When it 
was clear that they had carried the offensive far enough, they simply fell back 
to well feathered nests, where they are still in possession. I have no doubt they 
were rather agreeably surprised at the ease with which they held back the enemy 
while their trenches were being prepared. In fact, I opine that they never ex- 
pected to see more than a fragment of Von Kluck's army again, when they sent 
him to hold the enemy until they could be safely ensconced in their cozy cham- 
bers. 

To quote Simonds' terse figure; they have simply "taken root," in their pre- 
viously well prepared trenches. The only offensive they will probably henceforth 
offer in France will be simply to make occasional feints to toll the foe into taking 
the offensive and thus losing two or three men to the Germans' one, and the effort 
which will probably be finally successful, to straighten the line to Calais or Boul- 
ogne, both for purposes of military economy and map-making when they win the 
war and dictate the peace. (Germany is going to be fairly generous to France. 
All of France's territory that she will require will probably be that North of a 
line from say, Boulogne, to, say, Belfort. This will give her a valuable mineral 
belt and, — although it seems almost too grimly tragic for mention — with the enorm- 
ous increment of fertilizing material in the shape of decomposed organic matter — 
men and horses and their excreta — and the physical improvement of the soil made 
by trench-digging, shell-ploughing, etc., also a fine agricultural belt.) 

In other words, Germany is simply going to out-last the Allies. Right here, 
you blarsted Britishers will charge me with stealing your thunder. You've said 
all along that that's exactly what you are going to do to the Geramns — out-last 
them. Now, I concede the British are some out-lasters themselves, but they don't 
hold a light to the Germans. In fact they get all of their outlastingness from the 
German strain in their blood. A German is just simply a "natural born" Out- 
laster. Outlasting is his long suit. 

But how can Germany out-last such an aggregation of opponents? Simply 
because she has the materials and the men. (Now, stop there, Mr. Blooming Brit- 
isher, I ain't cribbing or infringing on your copyright — I mean just what I say. 
Germany's got 'em, although you have been putting it, with incalculabe ink-and 
voice-spill, just the other way.) 

First, as to materials. She not only has them, or can get them, but she can 
handle them better than anybody else The Germans are certainly now recog- 
nized as being the most absolutely thoroughgoing, scientifically systematic people 
in the world. 

To start with, she has the money. Furthermore, she isn't chained, like Eng- 
land, France, and Russia, to the fetich of the Gold Standard. She km ws how to 
intelligently issue — both through the banks and, if necessary, direct from the 
Government itself, paper money, based on work and labor done( the true basis 
of value of any product) which will discharge a whole cycle of debts and redeem 
itself finally by coming back to pay dues to the Bank or the Treasury. The result 
is that while England and France are in the throes of moratoria, Germany is going 
blithely along, swapping paper money for gold with her intelligent and patriotic 
citizens, until her banks are full of it and she is thus insured of ability to meet any 
foreign obligation, however long the war may last. 

Never fear but that Germany has the money all right. 



WHY GERMANY IS BOUND TO WIN. 231 

GERMANY'S BANK STATEMENT 

Berlin, Dec. 18 (via Tlie Hague and London).— Tlie weekly statement of the Imperial Bank 

of Germany shows the following changes: Marks 
Metal stack (other than gold), treasury certificates, loan 

bank notes, and notes of other banks decreased 23,864,000 

Gold increased 33,058,000 

T.omhards increased 18,909,000 

Discounts, including loan bank bills, increased 34,983,000 

Securities increased 258,592,000 

Notes in circulation increased 45,388,000 

Deposits increased 229,743,000 

(A month later.) 

Says the Saturday Evening Post: 

"As to how Germany, on the business side, met the shock of war, Vice-Chancellor Del- 
bruck is quoted as follows: 

" 'I had a talk with gentlemen representing control of the sugar industry, and in fifteen 
minutes we had settled all the questions affecting it. I met other men, and we quickly settled 
the textile and chemical industries. I met representatives of all the agricultural organiza- 
tions, and in an hour we had settled all questions pertaining to the food supply. Germany, 
as no other country, is centralized industrially and economically, giving us an organization 
that makes us unconquerable, economically and industrially." 

"Germany has long boasted of this thorough organization and co-ordination of business. 
Farmers have their associations; so have the iron and steel mills, the coal mines, the cheml- 
ical manufacturers and textile industries, shipping and what not. It is hardly too much to 
say that men competent to speak and to act for all the great lines of business, from farming 
to banking, could be gathered in a small hall in Berlin on two days' notice." 

GERMAN WAR LOAN HAS REACHED PAR ON BOURSE 

"Berlin, Jan 16, (Via the Hague and London, 11:30 a. m.) — The German war loan of 
$1,250,000,000 which was issued at 9 1-2, reached par on the Berlin Bourse yesterday. The ten- 
dency of the latest loan bonds has been upward for some days, but it was not expected that 
par would be reached so soon. In some cases the quotation was higher than 100." 

One of the greatest immediate needs was copper to make cartridges and guns 
with, but she ([uickly bought up all the stocks of contiguous neutral countries, 
pushed the capacity of her own mines, and, to make assurance doubly sure, cap- 
tured enormous quantities of it, "Made in America," but lost by France and Russia. 

The Russian economists chuckled over but one possible lack in Germany. That 
was what they call saltpetre — the nitre necessary to make explosives, most of her 
past supply of which she has been getting from Chile. We all knew, however, 
that Germany for years had been artificially making it in some quantity from the 
air. Prof. Ostwald, the great chemist, makes personal announcement that Germany 
has so perfected her process that there is no longer any danger whatever of a 
shortage.) 

Kitchener has all along nursed the hope that "petrol" or gasoline, would fail 
Germany. At the very outset she showed what an easy problem that was to 
handle by having all civilians use (and they did it quite successfully and con- 
veniently,) alcohol instead of petrol. However, the danger at worst was tem- 
porary: the chance of Russia taking the Galacian oil fields and also cutting off 
the supply from the Roumanian fields, and her own Russian fields. Germany now 
has petrol "to burn," and civilians are all using it again. 

Such are a few of the main items. The others are all in the same category. 
Germany will not suffer from any of them. 

Of course, her food supply is the most important problem. But she need 
have no fear on that score. With her accustomed thorough far-sightedness, pro- 
viding for the worst, assuming the war may last five or six years, she has com- 
mandeered the wheat supply. She is mixing the wheat with rye, and teaching 
not merely her civilians but her soldiers to eat it, and they are finding it (just 
as predicted) as nutritious, (if not more so) as pure wheat bread. If necessary, 
(as it will never be, because all her soil and most of Austria-Hungary's is now — 
and will continue to be — planted and fairly grunting to hurry up a great summer 



232 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

harvest of wheat) — but, if necessary, she could live on black bread alone and 
duplicate the experience of Caesar's soldiers, some of whose black cakes were once 
captured and brought to Pompey. "Destroy them instantly," commanded Pom- 
pey; "it would never do for my soldiers to see those cakes, for they would be 
afraid to fight men w^ho could live on such." 

No, there is no danger of Germany's starving. England's prospect is really 
better in that line than Germany's, unless she opens up the Dardanelles to let 
Russia's wheat through, and even then, the wheat boats must get by the German 
submarines.. 

You may get some idea of Germany's agricultural greatness from the state- 
ment of the great economic authority. Dr. Helfrich, that Germany's crops in 1913 
amounted to $3,300,000,000.00. So, there's no danger of starving that country 
until her enemies can get possession of her fields. The mere thought of that is 
ridiculous. 

Says Frederick Palmer in Everybody's Magazine: 

"Errors of impression were corrected. The first of these was about a starving Germany. 
Food was literally thrust at 5'ou from all quarters. Frankfurters were no less plentiful at 
the railroad stations than in other days. A world in uniform was munching brown bread and 
raw ham sandwiches despite the exodus of male labor at harvest time. No crops were 
left in the fields; old men and boys and women, the drudge peasant women dragging carts 
while the horses were at the front, had brought them all in. They had managed to sow 
great acreages of wheat, whose green expanses under the somber winter skies gave the only 
freshness and cheer to the landscape. 

"Germany has food enough to last for a year. 

Such a pity that Freddy got spoiled. So unfortunate that he went to England 
first and got that smile from that Duke's butler. 

And Germany has the MEN all right — don't forget that. Not so many in num- 
bers as the Piebalds; but what they lack in quantity they make up in quality, and 
availability, which is wholly dependent on equipability. And she isn't so weak 
in numbers, either, in the final test, because if things come to the worst her old 
men and young boys, rejoicing, will take the front, leaving the women to make 
the supporting stuff at home. Sooner or later the world, even obtuse England 
and ignorant America, will awake to the fact that Germans so love their Father- 
land and so believe in it that they are all willing to die for it if necessary. And 
the significance of this astounding fact will some day seep into their muddle- 
heads, viz: Where a highly civilized nation, a practical nation, calmly, without a 
touch of fanaticism, are so consecrated to a cause as to covet the chance to die 
for it, that cause must be a sacred one, absolutely bound up with Earth's highest 
Evolution; hence, bound to win. 



HOW^ THEY HANDLE THINGS. 

On the Monday evening of the first week of mobilization a high officer of the General Staff 
said: "It had to go well today, but how about tomorrow, the main day?" Tuesday evening 
saw no reason for complaint, no delay, no requests for instructions. All had moved with the 
regularly of clockwork. Regiments that had been ordered to mobilize in the forenoon left in 
the evening for the field, fully equipped. Not a man was lacking. There were no deserters, 
no shirkers, no cowards. Instead, there were volunteers whose numbers far exceeded the 
number that could be used. Every German would do his duty. — "Vital Issue." 



Says a special correspondent of the N. Y. Times: 

"At command the gun crew sprang to their posts about the mortar, which was already 
adjusted for its target, a little less than six miles away, the gun muzzle pointing skyward 
at an angle of about 60 degrees. As the gun was fired the projectile could be seen and fol- 
lowed in its course for several hundred feet. The report was sot excessively loud. 

"Before the report died away the crew were busy as bees about the gun. One man, with 
the hand elevating gear, rapidly cranked the barrel down to a level pos'tion, ready for load- 



WHY GERMANY IS BOUND TO WIN. 



233 



ing. A second threw open the breech and extracted the brass case, carefully wiping it out 
before depositing it among the empties; four more seized the heavey shell and lifted it to a cradle 
•opposite the breech; a seventh rammed it home; number eight gingerly inserted the brass cart- 
ridge, half filled with a vaseline-like explosive; the breech was closed, and the gun pointer 
rapidly cranked the gun again into position. In less than thirty seconds the men sprang 
back from the gun, again loaded and aimed. A short wait, and the observer from his post 
near the village ordered 'next shot fifty meters nearer.' 

"The gun pointer made the slight correction necessary, the mortar again sent its shell 
purring through the air against the village, which this time, it was learned, broke into flames, 
and while the men went back to their noonday rest, the Lieutenant explained the fine points 
of his beloved guns. One man, as had been seen, could manipulate the elevation gear with 
one hand easily and quickly; ten of his horses could take the mortar, weighing eight tons, 
anywhere; it could fire up to 500 shots per day. He was proud of the skillful concealment of 
his guns, which had been firing for foyr days from the same position without being discovered." 

Says special correspondent N. Y. Times : 

"Progress will undoubtedly be slow because the Germans have taken such tremendous 
pains to pave (in a literal sense) with concrete trenches the way of retreat. British airmen 
report line upon line of intrenchments where the Germans have defensively furrowed the land 
behind them for miles. As the Allies advance — and they indubitably will advance — these 
trenches will in turn be stubbornly defended. It is going to be, I am afraid, a long, weary, 
and bloody business." 






-J 



H«w they keep warm in Russia. 




Packed and ready. 



Says a special correspondent of the N. Y. Tribune: 

"Fresh consignments of raw material — men and ammunition — being rushed to the firing- 
line to be ground out into victories. The first shipment we pass is an infantry battalion — first, 
ten flat cars loaded with baggage, ammunition, provision-wagons ,and field-kitchens, the latter 
already with fire lighted and soup cooking as the long train steams slowly along, for the trenches 
are only fifty miles away, and the Germans make a point of sending their troops into battle 
with full stomachs. 



234 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



"After the flat cars come thirty box cars, all decorated with green branches and scrawled 
over with chalked witticisms at the expense of the French and Russians. The men cheer as 
our train passes. A few kilometers farther, backed on to a siding, is a train of some twenty 
flat cars, each loaded with a touring car. Then we pass a battery of artillery on flat cars, 
the guns still garlanded with flowers; then a short freight train — six cars loaded with nothing 
but spare automobile tires — then a long train of heavy motor-trucks, then more infantry 
trains, then an empty hospital-train going back for another load, then a train of gasoline- 
tank cars, more cheering infantry, more artillery, another empty hospital-train, a pioneer 
train, a score of flat cars loaded with long, heavy piles, beams, steel girders, bridge spans, and 
lumber, then a passenger-train load of German railway officials and servants going to operate 
the railways toward the coast, more infantry, food-trains, ammunition-trains, train-loads of 
railway tracks already bolted to metal ties and merely needing to be laid down and pieced 
together ,and so on in endless succession all through France and Belgium. The two-track 
road, shaky in spots, especially when crossing rivers, is being worked to capacity, and how 
well the huge traffic is handled is surprising even to an American commuter. 

"Our fast train stops at the mouth of a tunnel, then crawls ahead charily, for the French, 
before retreating, dynamited the tunnel. One track has been cleared, but the going is still 
bad. To keep it from being blocked again by falling debris the Germans have dug clean through 
the top of the hill, opening up a deep well of light into the tunnel. Looking up, you see a 
pioneer company in once cream-colored, now dirty-colored fatigue tmiform still digging away 
and terracing the sides of the big hole to prevent slides. 

"The intense activity of the Germans in rebuilding the torn-up railroads and pushing ahead 
new strategic lines is one of the most interesting features of a tour now in France. I was 
told that they had pushed the railroad work so far that they were able to ship men and am- 
munition almost up to the fortified trenches. The Germanization of the railroads here has 
been completed by the importation of station superintendents, station-hands, track-walkers, 
etc., from the Fatherland. The stretch over which we are traveling, for example, is in charge 
of Bavarians. The Bavarian and German flags hang out at every French station we pass. 
German signs everywhere, even German time. It looks as if they thought to stay forever. 

"Now we creep past a long hospital train — full this time, which has turned out on a sid- 
ing to give us the right of way — perhaps thirty all-steel cars — each fitted with two tiers of 
berths, eight to a side, sixteen to a car. Every berth is taken. One car is fitted up as an op- 
erating-room, but fortunately no one is on the operating-table as we crawl past. Another car 
is the private office of the surgeon in charge of the train. He is sitting at a big desk re- 
ceiving reports from the orderlies. During the day we pass six of these splendidly appointed 
new all-steel hospital-trains, all full of wounded. Some of them are able to sit up in their 
bunks and take a mild interest in us. Once, by a queer coincidence, we simultaneously pass, 
the wounded going one way and cheering, fresh troops going the other." 



ANOTHER BIG ARGUMENT. 



,^s^^ 




,P'-Pl 



/ V /■ ~ J 



\17 b^^ ^ 



Says the Technical World Mayazine: 



The gun weighs, with its oayj^i^-^^i 9^^ hundred and twenty tons. It takes three-quarters 
of a ton of powder to fire it, and ?a'Ch shot weighs a ton. Its length is seventy-nine feet, and 
its effective range is a little over twenty ' q^||e^. It would shoot clear across the Strait of 
Dover. When one of its shells crashed intp jl^'^ middle of a block of buildings, it was followed 
by an upheaval like that of a volcano. Qrpal conical clouds of dust, debris, and smoke rose 
to the height of a thousand feet, while the ^^tonation was so violent as to break the eardrumg 
of every one in the immediate neighborhoQil! Antwerp, built to hold out against all comers 
for at least six months, went down in eleveji"'days before the 'Big Berthas.' " 

Says a French retired ordinance officer, who observed the effect of the German field pieces 
on forts Imbourg, Boncelles and Fleron: "The German gunnery was perfection itself. Shell 
upon shell was exploded squarely on the ramparts." 



WHY GERMANY IS BOUND TO WIN. 



235 



Says Cyril Brown, special correspondent of the New York "Times": 

"For weeks these same regiments had been daily 'decimated,' 'cut to pieces,' and other- 
wise badly mauled by English war correspondents, but you would never have suspected it. 
Bearded dragoons and Uhlans were still able to sit up and smoke big Hamburg cigars as they 
rode along, the horses looked fresh, the guns of the batteries were spick and span, the men 
seemed to have 'morale' to spare; thej^ looked as if they were just going for the first time — 
and not coming from the scrimmage." 



HERE'S HOW THEY FIGHT ON LAND AND SEA. 




Von Hindenberg and his Staff. 
The bunch that broke the back of the Bear*. 



RUSSIANS OUTCLASSED, DECLARES U, S. EXPERT 

. New York, Feb. 13. — The Russians are hopelessly outclassed by the Germans, and in order 
for the Allies to rout the Germans out of Belgium and France will require four men to every 
German oh the battlefield." 

Captain F. B. Nelson, of the United States army, who has been observing military op- 
erations on the other side, made this statement on his arrival today on the liner Nieuw Am- 
sterdam. 

"The Russians cannot compare with the Geramns as a fighting machine," he said. "It 
is pitiful to see the way the Russians are being slaughtered." 

"Slavs are better fighters than the Cossacks. The morale of the Russian army is fast being 
corrupted. Many of the Russians desert and come over to the Germans for a square meal. 

"On the western front the Germans are holding their own. They are strongly entrenched 
and well equipped." 

Captain Nelson stated that the complete list of the German casualties at the end of Jan- 
uary was 953,207. . .... . . 

- We can't hear much from Germany. What we do get is simply spontaneous, 
unsuppressible outbursts of admiration wrung under elemental conditions of un- 
surpassed heroism from biased opponents. And such outbursts we get by the 
Hundred. Even our purblind pro-British war correspondents have to cry aloud 
in amazed admiration. "Those who came to scoff remained to pray." 

Says a special correspondent of the N. Y. Times: 

"But you know, Excellency (Von Emmich), that you were reported to have lost something 
like 120,000 men before Liege." 



236 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

"That's three times as many as I had," he answered with the "winning smile." . . , 
The next General to be interviewed was the "Hero of Maubeuge," Gen. von Zwehl. 

"He confirmed the fact that Maubeuge had fallen on schedule time in ten days, and that 
he had taken over 40,000 French prisoners, that he had given the French commandant till 7 
p. m. (German time) to surrender, and that the appointment was kept with great promptness; 
also that the French were a bit chagrined when they learned they had been 'taken in' by a 
single corps. I also learned that he and his corps had arrived in time to stop the first English 
corps which had crossed the Aisne and was marching on X. 

"Asked if the remark of one of his staff that 'the English can't attack' was a fact, Von 
Zwehl said: 'I can only speak as far as my own experience goes, and that was that the Eng- 
lish never were able to carry through a bayonet charge with success against my troops. They 
came on bravely enough, but when our troops would open fire on them at fifty yards and fol- 
low it up with a counter-attack, the English would invariably go over into the defensive, at 
which they are at their best. They are particularly experienced in 'bush warfare,' and dis- 
play the utmost skill in making the most of every bit of cover.' " 

"General von Haenisch took me aloft and explained to me how business was done. A 
good telephone operator, it developed, was almost as important as a competent general — the 
telephone central the most vital spot of an army. Here were three large switchboards with 
soldiers playing telephone-girl, while other soldiers, with receivers fastened over their heads, 
sat at desks, busy taking down messages on printed 'business' forms. In the next room sat 
the staff officers on duty, waiting for the telephone bell to jingle with latest reports from the 
front. There was no waiting because numbers were 'engaged' or operators gossiping; you 
could get Berlin or Vienna without once having to swear at 'long distance.' General von 
Haenisch had his chief of field-telephone and telegraph trot out what looked like a huge family 
tree, but turned out to be a most minute chart of the entire telephone system of the army. It 
showed the position of every corps and division headquarters, regiment, battalion, and com- 
pany, and all the telephone lines connecting them, even to the single trenches and batteries. 

"Fights in the air are regular occurrences now. We attack every chance we 

get, in spite of the fact that we have only our revolvers against the machine guns, which 
they have mounted on their aeroplanes. We find the best defense against their machine gun 
fire is to get up close to the French aeroplane and then dodge and twist in sharp dips and 
curves, spoiling the aim of the mounted machine gun and giving us an advantage with our 
rftTolvers. 

"One of the most interesting engagements was between a squadron of four of our aero- 
planes armed with revolvers against a big and a little "Bauerschreck" (the German nickname 
for the armored Frencli aeroplanes armed with mounted machine guns.) The fight lasted for 
nearly an hour at an altitude ranging from 5,000 to 6,000 feet, the big "Bauerschreck" being 
finally forced to land, while the little one flew off. One of our aviators did a fine piece of work 
recently, landing behind the French lines, destroying the railway at that point and flying off 
again. The French are magnificent fliers, and so are the English, but we Germans have the 
training. Especially in trained observers we have a big advantage. 

"Sergeant Luchs and his observers were returning from an aerial reconnaissance when 
they were overtaken and attacked by a fast French aeroplane. The effectiveness of the French 
machine gun fire was later shown by seventy holes in the wings of the German aeroplane. For 
forty-five minutes the battle in the air lasted — 6,000 feet up — revolver against machine gun, 
ending only when Luchs was shot through the lungs and liver. He was able to guide his 
machine safely to the ground within the German lines before he lost consciousness. But one 
of his revolver bullets had gone home, probably puncturing the gasoline tank, for the French 
aeroplane was also seen making a forced landing. 

"General von Heeringen, commander-in-chief of the Nth Army, told me a similar story 
about two officers who fought with revolver against machine gun until their motor and tank 
were shot to pieces, forcing them to glide to earth. The General said he had learned about 
their bravery only by accident, as they had reported only the results of their reconnaissance." 

Says the N. Y. "Sun," (anti-German): 

"The splend:d courage of the latest boy conscript advance along the Yser in the face of 
machine guns and magazine rifles at point blank range has earned the tribute of the British 
historian of the daily campaign events. 

A tribute from Simonds, in the American Review of Reviews: 

"Halted here, (at Nieuport) the Germans moved inland and came on again about Dixmude, 
halfway between Ypres and Nieuport. Here once more they made progress until the Belgians 
in their despair opened the sluices and the water flowed over fertile fields carrying ruin with 
it, turning the whole country into a lake, drowning the invaders in huge numbers, creating 
an obstacle impassable for the present, repeating the exploit of the Dutch in their glorious 
fight against Alva. 

"Eastward from Dixmude, which presently, after the most desperate of struggles and after 
changing hands many times, remained with the Germans, the attack was directed at Ypres. 
Here the British stood. Here the Kaiser's wish was gratified and the troops of England met 



WHY GERMANY IS BOUND TO WIN. 



237 



the gallant Bavarians and did not succomb. At points the line bent back. Such real gains 
M J as were rmade were made by the Germans, but the line held. Day and night, the slaughter 

went on. Trenches, hills, farmhouses were taken and retaken. Villages and towns were 
transformed into heaps of ashes. 

"To add to the horror, winter began and sleet and rain, — finally snow, — fell, transforming 
the whole country into a swamp. In the inextricable tangle of roads, buildings and ruined 
f towns, the bodies of men lay unburied for days. The streams and ditches were choked with 

' the human wreckage. All semblance of strategy vanished. Tactical considerations were sub- 

ordinated to the simple, single purpose of an advance by the mere weight of numbers. It 
became not a struggle based on the application of modern theories, but a death grapple be- 
tween thousands and hundreds of thousands of men, transformed by suffering, by deprivation, 
by the misery of the winter storms, to mere animals, clad in clothes reduced to rags, or un- 
discoverable beneath the outward layers of mud. 

"Again and again more losses, frightful attrition, seemed to bring the German effort to a 
standstill. Yet always in a few hours or days new thousands returned to the charge. Al- 
ways, too, they came forward fearlessly, a song on their lips. Regiments of youths took the 
place of the older men of the first line, but the boys were not less brave than the men, the 
recruits than the veterans." 

And hear him again, speaking of how Von Hindenberg extricated his smaller 
army: 

"Their escape will always remain a memorable military operation. All that is known of 
it as yet comes through Russian official statements in which the German exertions are de- 
scribed as 'unbelievable.' 

"What seems to have happened was that the Thorn army east and south of Lodz turned 
west and north, cut its way through the army which had enveloped it, not with artillery fire, 
but with the bayonet, broke down the barrier by sheer weight and desperation, finally opened 
a pathway." 



AND HERE'S HOW THEY DIE. 



The splendid spy, Lody, was shot with these words on his lips: 
wish I could have done more for my country." 



I only 



CONCENTRATE FIRE 



"The British concentrated their fire on the Scharnhorst, Admiral Von Spee's flagship. 
When it became evident that she was doomed her crew assembled on the forward deck. The 
Scharnhorst refused to surrender, and after an hour's fighting plunged beneath the waves. 
The crew preserved its formation as the ship went down, and they cheered as the waters 
closed about them. An opportunity to surrender was offered the colliers, but it was refused 
and they were sunk." 



THE GERMAN SAILOR HAS CERTAINLY ARRIVED. 




Mullen, Captain of the Emden. Weddigen of U-9 



Admiral von Spee. 



238 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



"It is the fine form, skill, and courage of the German sailor that make him lead the world 
in efficiency. You have seen the blue-eyed youths of Germany at their tasks; you have seen 
their enthusiasm as sailors. What courage, what seamanship, is needed to carry on the daily 
routine of the great ironclads, while from without the enemy's shells are piercing the sides 
of the vessel and every hour of this unspeakably severe labor may be the last of the sailor's 
life! You have seen the eagerness to volunter for this murderous service, so great indeed 
that the crowd overflowed the antechambers of the Ministry of Marine." 

The Koelnische Zeitiing says: 

"All that has happened at sea has happened in spite of England's giant Navy — the deeds 
of our cruisers, which have become the terror of the seas and of English trade; the achieve- 
ments of our submarines, which have sunk cruisers at the very doors of England. Where 
are the crushing blows with which England was to bring the aggressor to the ground? There 
is none of that now. The proud Navy lies in hiding, London shivers before the German air 
fleet and shrouds itself in darkness, while night-watchmen and hastily prepared fortiflcations 
on the coast await our landing." 

"" NOT TO THE STRONGEST. 

(From the "Evening World," New York.) 

"The most formidable battleship line in the world vigilantly guarding the coasts of Great 
Britain failed to prevent the enemy's cruisers from breaking thix)ugh and denting the sacred 
home shore with shells. 

"A gigantic fleet seems to prove no certain assurance for England. Daring and enter- 
prise defy the utmost precautions." 



What are the wild waves saying' 




From the "Brooklyn Eagle. 
COiVIPEL ADIVIIRATION 

"The audacity and courage of the assault inevitably compel admiration." — N. Y. "Times." 

"Presently, not far from the Ariadne, two hostile cruisers loomed out of the mist — two 
dreadnought battle cruisers of 30,000 tons' displacement, armed with eight 13.5-inch guns. 
What could the Ariadne, of 2,650 tons and armed with ten 4-inch guns, do against those two 
Goliath ships? 

"At the start of this unequal contest a shot struck the forward boiler room of the Ariadne 
and put half of her boilers out of business, lowering her speed by fifteen miles. Nevertheless, 
and despite the overwhelming superiority of the English, the fight lasted half an hour. The 
stern of the Ariadne was in flames, but the guns on her foredeck continued to be worked. 

"But the fight was over. The enemy disappeared to the westward. The crew of the Ari- 
adne, now gathered on the foredeck, true to the navy's traditions, broke into three hurrahs 
for the War Lord, Kaiser Wilhelm. Then, to the singing of 'Deutschland Ueber Alles,' the sink- 
ing, burning ship was abandoned in good order." 



WHY GERMANY IS BOUND TO WIN. 

TO ADMIRAL von SPEE AND HIS MEN. 
(By Frederick H. Martens in "Fatherland." 

Outranged, outnumbered — not outfought — 

In foreign seas you found your grave: 
True to the creed that honor taught, 

Firm in the faith that makes men brave. 

It is no shame to strive and yield, 

The battle lost, to bow to Fate; 
Yet nobler, on the stricken field. 

To die unconquered and elate. 

To leave no trophy to the foe: 

While battle-flags defiant wave 
To sink, and fathoms deep below 

Still guard your guns to mark your grave! 

THE MEN OF THE " EMDEN " 

Erect on the wave-washed decks stood they 

And heard with a viking's grim delight 
The whir of the wings of death by day 

And the voice of death in their dreams by 
night! 
Under the sweep of the wings of death, 
By the blazing gun, in the tempest's breath, 

While a world of enemies strove and fum( 

Remote, unaided, undaunted, doomed. 
They stood — is there any friend or foe. 

Who will choke a cheer? — who can still but 
scoff? 
No, no, by the gods of valor, no! 

To the "Emden's" crew — 

Hats off! 



239 




FIVE O'CLOCK TEA AT NEPTUNE'S 
— From "Die Muskete." 
"Look, children, what the 'Emden' is send- 
ing down to us!" 



The True Story of the "Emden's Last Fight." 

"The details of the destruction of the German cruiser "Emden" off tlie Cocos Islands, in 
the Indian Ocean, comes from Ceylon, where the wounded German sailors were sent ashore. 
The "Emden" got in the first three shots, only one of which struck the "Sydney." After that 
the Australian cruiser kept out of range, having the heavier guns. Slie fired 600 rounds. Dur- 
ing the figlit, which lasted an hour and a half, the two ships traveled 56 iniles. Nearly 200 of 
the "Emden's" crew were killed before she was driven on the beach. Only three men were on 
deck when summoned to surrender, and several broadsides were poured into her before the 
white flag could be displayed. The ship's flag was thrown into the sea. The three officers and 
forty men of the "Emden" who were ashore when the fight started, and who seized a sailing 
boat and e.^caped, have' been captured. They made a prize of a British ccllier and were raid- 
ing British commerce." — Leslie's Weekly. 

"Since the passing of the "Alabama," no sea raider approached her in daring until Capt. 
Karl von Muller took the "Emden" into the Indian Ocean and began tlie spectacular series 
of operations against British shipping and colonial ports that ended on November 9th. Twenty- 
five merchant ships and colliers and two warships were victims of the "Emden" in the three 
months of her raiding; a total tonnage loss of 75,500 and a loss in ships alone of more than 
ten million dollars is credited to her. 

"In the measured words of the British Admiralty announcing the "Emden's" destruction 
off the Cocos Islands by the Australian cruiser "Sydney," a 'large combined operation by fast 
cruisers' had been in progress against the "Emden" for some time before. And no wonder! 
For on October 29th, the German ship had entered the harbor of Penang, disguised by the ad- 
dition of a fourth (dummy) smokestack, and sunk the Russian cruiser "Jemtchug" and the 
French torpedo boat "Mousquet." No wonder that, as the Admiralty said, 'in this search, 
■Which has covered an immense area, the British cruisers have been aided by French, Russian, 



240 



THE WORLD ON FIRE. 



and Japanese vessels working in harmony, as well as by the Australian warships "Melbouurne" 
and "Sydney".' 

"At Madras, in the Bay of Bengal, the "Emden" destroyed oil tanks, a telegraph station, 
and other buildings; in Rangoon harbor, on the other side of the Bay, she sank four British 
steamships and a collier; and she haunted the shipping lanes of the Indian Ocean so effectively 
that the marine insurance rates on cargoes rose to 7 1-2 per cent. " 

Says the Scientific American: 

"When the German submarine has been able to get home its torpedo, it has effected the 
destruction of the ship attacked, practically at the first blow. The deadly character of Ger- 
man submarine attack is due to the fact that a special type of torpedo has been designed for 
submarine use." 



From ''Britain Still Rules the 
Sea." So says Winston Churchill, 
First Lord of the British Admiral- 
ity. By Frederick F. Schrader, in 
Fatherland. 



JVIy digestion ain't just what it was— 

I'm off into rapid decline, 
Since back in September one day 

We had that affair with "U-9." 
We had 'em like rats In a trap. 

With sixty of ours to their ten; 
But even with odds on like that 

They luffed at our good sailormen. 
Now ain't I the Lord of the Main, 

And ain't I the Lord of the Sea? 
But look you, my hearty, at what 

This 'ere War Lord has done unto me! 
I'm a wild -cat tornado for fight, 

I'm a ringtailed sun-of-a-gun. 
We can lick all the navies afloat — 

That is, if we're a dozen to one. 
And I hold it decidedly fell 

To blow up three ships of the line 
With a blasted invention of hell 

That they call, in their jargon, "U-9." 




From "Guckkasten." 
Neptune: "Bravo. Business Is Picking Up." 

"More than two hundred miles from her base, "U-9" sighted, through the five feet of peri- 
scope showing above the water, three British crui.^ers that seemed big enough game for the 
ambitious Captain Weddigen. He is only thirty-one years old, and was married tlie day before 
he set out to find some of the enemy's ships to blow up. Captain Weddigen submerged "U-9" 
completely and laid a course to bring his craft to the centre of the triangle formed by them. 

"As I reached what I regarded as a good point from which to shoot, I loosed one of my 
torpedoes at the middle ship; I was then about twelve feet under water and got the shot off in 
good shape, my men handling the boat as if she were a skiff. 

THE LAST OF THE "ABOUKIR" 

"There rose a fountain of water, a burst of smoke, a flash of fire, and part of the big 
cruiser reared up in the air. Then I heard a roar and felt the reverberations sent through the 



WHY GERMANY IS BOUND TO WIN. 241 

water by the detonation. The "Aboukir" had been striken in a vital spot; she broke apart and 
sank in a few minutes. 

" 'But soon,' said he, 'the other two English cruisers learned what had brought about the 
destruction so suddenly. 

" 'As I readied my torpedo depth, I sent a second torpedo at the nearest of the oncoming 
vessels, which was the "Hogue." The English were playing my game, for I had scarcely to 
move out of my position.' This second shot went true and in twenty minutes she heaved, half 
turned over, and sank, 

"Amply warned by the explosion against the "Hogue," the "Cressy's" commander never- 
theless came on to rescue the crews of her sister ships. As she came, 'she steamed in a zig- 
zag course,' Captain Weddigen reported, 'and this made it necessary for me to hold my tor- 
pedoes until I could lay a true course for them; also, it was necessary for me to get nearer 
to the "Cressy." 

" 'I had come to the surface for a view and saw how wildly the fire was being sent from 
the ship. Small wonder, when they did not know where to shoot! Though one shot came un- 
pleasantly near to us. 

" 'When I got a suitable range, I sent away my third attack; and this time I sent a second 
torpedo after the first to make doubly certain of the strike. My crew were aiming like sharp- 
shooters, and both torpedoes went to their bullseyes. Again luck was with me, for the shots 
disabled the enemy, and at once she began to sink by the head; then she careened far over. 

" 'A boiler explosion caused her to turn turtle after a few minutes. She floated keel up- 
permost for a time, then, as the air leaked out from under, she sank with a loud sound as 
if from a creature in pain.' 

"Captain Weddigen was chased, as he had foreseen; but he managed to get a wireless 
message to the German fleet; then he attempted to lure his pursuers within the zone held by the 
German- war fleet. Just at dusk, the British destroyers got a glimpse of 'T-9" and made 
a final attempt to sink her; but it failed and the enemy drew off. 

"Captain AVeddigen got back to his base in the afternoon of September 23rd; on the 24th 
he went to Wilhelmshaven to be greeted happily by his young wife and to learn that the Kaiser 
had conferred upon him the Iron Cross of the first and second order and upon each member of 
his crew the Iron Cross of the second order. 

"On October 15th, the "U-9" made a second excursion and sank the "Hawke"." 

*♦**•*♦* 

Yes, yes, she has the MEN. Hear is what Gen. Von Falkenhayn, the War Min- 
itser, in a recent authorized interview (he didn't Kitchener on it) had to say of 
Germany's resources: 

"As for the embargo on copper — (here Gen. von Falkenhayn laughed.) "Above ground we 
have more than enough for all military needs. If our regular supplies become exhausted, we 
need only draw on the enormous quantities of manufactured copper already in German5^ In 
our cables for transmitting high-tension electricity, for instance, we have a two years' supply. 

"British interference with copper shipments, it seems to me, is a heavy blow for America, 
but for us it is nothing." (Gen. von Falkenhayn used the vigorous South German expression 
for 'utter indifference.') 

CAN FIGHT INDEFINITELY 

"How long do you think the war may last, or can last — Lord Kitchener's three years?" 

"It can last," said the German Chief of Staff .picking out that particular part of the ques- 
tion, "indefinitely for us. I see nothing that can force us to stop fighting. 

"Food and materials? We are amply supplied. Our strategic position is good. Human 
material? Do you know that the recruits of the 1915 class are to be called to the colors? Oc- 
tober 1, 1915, is the normal date. I was occupying myself with this question yesterday. Does 
that look as if there was any lack of soldiers? We have more troops in Berlin today than in 
peace times. They still need training, however. No men are sent to the front without adequate 
preparation, 

"Enthusiasm? You have been at the front and know that there is no slackening in the 
zeal of the men for their task. No; we can go on indefinitely." 

Of course, if all the German soldiers should be killed and the mongrels 
shouldn't, Germany would lose. But the Germans are some killers themselves, eh? 
True, not being inherent liars or hypocrites, they honestly publish their losses; 
unlike the French and English, who are afraid for the world, and most particu- 
larly their own peaple, to learn how the Germans through superior generalship, 
valor, and systematic efficiency have been mowing them down. My estimate is 
that to date the Piebalds have lost at least IV2 to the Germans 1, — and the dis- 
parity will steadily increase in the future. 

The only way to conquer a German is to kill him. It won't do to merely 
wound him. So long as he has an arm, leg, lung, and 1-3 of a liver, kidney, and 



212 THE WORLD ON FIRE. 

head, he will be on hand to fight again. They patch him up so quickly it would 
make your head swim. And then he is ready once more, with a song on his lips, 
to go to the front to get in shape to be patched up again. 

Of the Germans (say 1,000,000) killed, wounded, and missing to date, prob- 
ably 125,000 are dead, 75,000 captured, and 800,000 wounded, to be patched up, 
in many instances already patched, repatched, and re-re-patched only to start 
again as full-fledged vetreans. Guess they alone ought to be able to hold Kitchen- 
er's alleged 2,000,000 for awhile, eh? Even if Kitchener ever gets 'em. The Eng- 
lish youth, muddle-headed as he is, has sense enough to see, merely from the 
censored drippings that leak to him, what the Germans are doing for 'em and he 
has no overwhelming desire to make "cannon fodder" of himself. They can't 
keep all of the obituaries out of the papers, and the plethora of first-class funerals 
is quite impressive to Mr. Cockney and Mr. Tomlinson. True the enrolling busi- 
ness picked up for a day or so after the insolent Germans bombarded the coast 
of the Tight Little Isle, but that was merely because the teeth-chattering cockneys 
felt in their first panicky throes that it was safer to be with the army than at home. 

There were two chances for the Piebalds to win. They are both gone never 
to return. First when the Russians took their first offensive and second, when 
they took their second offensive. The whole world was swept off its feet by the 
dexterity with which Russia swung into aggressive action — no one more astounded 
than the Germans themselves. True, they knew all about that $2,000,000,000 
France had loaned Russia to prepare with; but that fact could be discounted all 
right, — the main army could still rush to France and capture "that dear Paree'* 
and get back in time to welcome the Russians. 

But, Paris was never reached. The first alternative of falling back to strong 
positions had to be used. Why? Huge segments had to be rushed back to meet 
the invading Russian. Why? Because the Russians had been mobilizing much 
longer than anybody had suspected — and thereby probably hangs a terrible tale. 
Another thing, too, happened, the most amazing, incredible, phenomenon of 
modern times — the Czar had listened to the Scientists and the Soul-ists of his dark 
Czardom and with a stroke of the pen had devodkaized the Empire. It doubled 
its efficiency two-fold in a fortnight. In deadly potency it was a new Russia. 
(What a pity our great, awkward giant, America, couldn't have a Czar for one 
week — just one week, mind you — every ten years merely to enact into concrete 
law, the big vital moral measures our people evolve up to each decade but can't 
pass because of the pot politicians, the dirty demagogues, and the prostituted 
press! But, the success of woman's suffrage may yet get these things for us with- 
out a Czar.) 

The Germans had to rush back to meet a new foe. They met them all right, 
hurled them back all right; but, they found out this important fact: that whereas 
theretofore 1 German soldier had been eciual to 4 Russians, thenceforth he was 
only equal to 2^2 or 3. 

The Russians, too, with their brains cleared of booze had learned something 
ominous, startling, vital, viz: The German soldier, great as he was universally 
known to be, was yet far greater than his greatest admirer, aye, than his own 
officers, had ever suspected. So Russia, the one hope of the Piebalds, had only one 
strategy left; to again concentrate, to again throw its fullest possible strength 
into the balance in time for one supreme, crushing, overwhelming stroke which 
would land the Russians in Berlin, or at least make the Germans so deplete their 
lines in France and Belgium that the Piebalds down there could break through 
and thus they could between them, crack the very bones of Germany in an iron 
vise. The effort was duly made. It failed; no need for details — let us just say — 
Hindenberg. But, it failed — fully, abjectly, utterly. The Germans have more than 
a half million able-bodied Russians behind the bars in Germany. 

Br'er Simonds played his bunch a most parlous trick in the January Review 
of Reviews. Careering among the clouds in the commodious airship of his unfet- 
tered imagination; proving to himself beyond the thinnest wraith of the ghost of 
the dream of a doubt that Germany is whipped and it's all over but the yellin', 
(basing said proof upon Hindenberg's alleged abject failure to tee-totally crush 
Russia with his counter-drive against Russia's terrific, full-force, second offensive 
drive against Germany) ; he suddenly plunges with his passengers into the cold 



WHY GERMANY IS BOUND TO WIN. 



243 



lake with the statement that while Von Hindenberg had abjectly failed, etc., etc., 
yet, still, however, nevertheless, notwithstanding, but, it might be vaguely recalled 
that the sole object of this counter-drive was to force the Russians, in their per- 
emptory need for re-inforcements, to call off the siege of Cracow. How sad, then, 
that Von Hindenberg, not being in communication with Br'er Simonds (that 
pesky old cable being cut), and hence not aware of his abject failure, actually 
pressed the Russians until they did drop Cracow (and that, too, — just think! only 
a day or two after Br'er Simonds had ukased to the contrary) and is now threaten- 
ing Warsaw itself. 

America can't make guns fast enough to ever make Russia as strong a factor 
in the problem as she was at her second offensive. 

If Warsaw, Russia's great concentration and distribution point, falls this 
winter, (and things squint very much that way) it will cut off the Trans-Vistula 
Russian armies and wind the war up six months sooner. If, how^ever, the weather 
gets too bad, or the Russians concentrate too strongly for the Germans to capture 
Warsaw this winter; they can just "take root" in perfectly selected positions and 
keep cozy in the trenches, occasionally tolling the Russians into monstrous death- 
traps to break the monotony, just as they are doing the mongrels in France and 
Belgium. 




Left, from "Ulk." The Yellow Mask: "A man may smile and sm ie and be a villain." 

right. Cantoos from "Tokyo Puck." Japan: "Want a loan of this arm, eh? You 
say its good for something greater than Kiauchow? Ah, yes; but what do I get for its service?" 



But, I hear you say, how about Japan? Well, frankly, I admit I thought Japan 
w^ould stop with Kiauchau. I didn't believe her heart-crossed oaths, of course. I 
did think, however, she wouldn't wade deeper into doom. I though she had too 
much sense. But she is just like the rest of the Piebalds. It would seem that the 
Gods have made the whole bunch mad in order to make the destruction unani- 
mous. I think I can see clearly now that Japan will butt in. I note in the Outlook 
an article by some smooth-penned lady telling of Japan's "Platonic War on Ger- 
many." Whenever they begin to dish out that sort of dope you can look out for 
devilment. Then, there is all that duplicitous stuff about the grotesque exchange 
with Russia of a few big guns for thousands of square miles of land. Then, too, 
an article in Norman Hapgood's degenerate little squeaky handorgan, the once 
virile mouthpiece of Col. Harvey, a chap with a name something like Adagio Cano- 
suet essays, with lip pursed to the last point of unctuous self-conceit, to tell us in 
a set of jerky spasms which he deems a style super-sententious and ultra-epigram- 
matic, just what a dictatorial and absolutely impregnable position Japan occupies, 
and what she can demand and get. (One never knows whether these Jap effusions 
in Harper's Weekly and Collier's and things, are really authentic or not — but I 
believe this is, because, poor as it is, neither Norman Hapgood nor even his jan- 
itor, has sense enough to write it.) Again, look at the cartoon from the Tokio 
Puck. It speaks volumes. So, I take it Japan is beginning in her would-be cun- 



244 



WHY GERMANY IS BOUND TO WIN. 



ning way, a la her exemplar, England, to lay a predicate to accustom the world 
to the thought of Japan's sousing in when she thinks the psychological moment 
has arrived. And it has arrived now, if ever; — England needs Nippon's yellow 
hordes on the Continent right now. They can exert their maximum right now, 
either in conjunction with Russia against Germany or directly themselves against 
Turkey, or both. If they try the Germans themselves the world will witness some 
sure enough fighting. The Japs are good fighters, all right. Pit them directly 
against the Germans and the world will see what the Germans really are. It will 
be the scrap of the centuries. Japan's shameful conduct in Asia has already fired 
the German heart and they don't want anything better than to welcome the yellow 
hordes, as Bob Toombs said, "With bloody hands to hospitable graves." Every- 
thing points to just that, viz: Japan's furnishing, say, 1,500,000 soldiers in the 
next six months to help Russia and perhaps tackle Turkey, if she already isn't 
tackling her. 




The Minnesingers: "Come dovyn, O Lady 
Italy." 

From "Guckkasten " 



As to the Small Fry: Apostate Italy was almost ready to "come down and 
join the minnesingers" at the outset; but enough has seeped out, even from the 
censorship, for her to stand aloof hereafter from the path of German prowess for 
perhaps a few weeks longer. Roumania and Greece are negligible. They can't 
do very much anyhow, and Bulgaria always stands in their way. Turkey will help 
a whole lot around the edges. 

Another vital phase. The peace-loving people of America, are gradually get- 
ting it dinned into their noggins that to deliberately give a man a gun to shoot 
another with is just about as bad as shooting him yourself; and they are going to 
make Mr. Wilson toe the mark and quit quoting the technical quibbles of an efl'ete, 
never effective, and English-framed international law of alleged neutrality, and 
force Pudgy Schwab, Unctuous Andy and J. P. Morgan & Co., and their ilk to quit 
giving Cossacks and Kurds, Sikhs and Sepoys, Senegalese and Ghurkas, and all 
manner of Earth's degenerate black-and-tan hellions, guns to slaughter the Ger- 
mans, from whom we, our Anglo-Saxon selves, all sprang, and from whom we got 
about all the good blood that's in us. When this is done it will be all over but 
the shouting. 

In fine the situation is this: taken by surprise at the outset, lulled by Rus- 



WHY GERMANY IS BOUND TO WIN. 245 

sian treachery into an incalculably costly initial delay; delayed by Belgian op- 
position till France could get in shape; today, nearly six months after the war 
started, Germany has "taken root" as Simonds concedes, in France behind a 
curved girder of impenetrable steel from Ostend to Switzerland, it? richest mineral 
section. Time after time Joffre has hurled his multi-millions against this girder 
vathout avail. It is there to stay. Just drive a spike on that. JoflVe was fmally 
reported as saying he would hereafter just "wear the enemy out," like Grant. He 
probably don't know that Grant once made a remark about "Biting Granite." 

At the other end, the last savage Cossack has been driven to Russian snows, 
and if the Germans can't capture Warsaw (which would settle Russia's hash for 
good) they can at least take root in their defenses, as in France, and, to keep their 
blood in healthy circulation, vary the monotony by an occasional sortie against a 
weak spot or by a feint to lure the foe again into those dreadful lagoons. 

The Austrians, while not such good soldiers as the Germans, yet can, partic- 
ularly with German coaching or leadership, do great work as a buffer, keeping 
Russia constantly diverted to suit the particular tactics of the occasion. Austria 
can furnish to the war, all told, some 4,000,000 soldiers; Germany, if necessary, at 
least 7,000,000, all effectives, at that. In an undenied (eh, Kitchener?) interview 
on Christmas Day, Von Moltke, the great German Chief of Staff, says : "Our forces 
are inexhaustible. There are more than 3,000,000 men upon whom we have not 
yet drawn, not counting the constantly growing list of volunteers." She can keep 
permanently the 2,000,000 she now has entrenched to hold France's 3,000,000 and 
England's present 450,000, and can not merely keep the present proportion, but 
can meet them man for man henceforth, with her superior facilities for getting 
her men ready. She can keep 2,000,000 similarly entrenched, or on the offens- 
ive, against the Russians. And, greatest of all — really the deciding factor — she 
can use her magnificent system of Government-owned railroads, constant practice 
in the handling of which is making her a perfect expert, to carry her 1,000,000 
emergency soldiers with almost the mobility of a huge fluid body, to every weak 
spot in either arena of the war, all the while reserving 1,500,000 for her "pla- 
tonic" friend, the Jap, and Apostate Italy. Every man she loses in France means 
two lost to the enemy who have to attack perfected defenses. Whenever the vic- 
torious German offensive in Russia graduates into a permanent entrenchment, 
every German loss will mean at least two Rusisans. So, the end is inevitable. 
GERMANY WINS. 

Now, since the wise guys have been so free with their predictions; and hav- 
ing gotten my own predicter into pretty good working shape — let me predict this: 
The war will end with Germany well rooted in France, a slice of which, say, from 
Boulogne to Belfort, she will very properly annex; and well rooted where she is, 
or further in Russia, Poland at least of which she should annex. She will get back 
Kiauchau and her other Asiatic possessions; and will take the English, Belgian 
and French possessions in Africa, and a few others. 

And the peace will be signed Christmas Eve, 1915, as a peace present to the 
grief-fraught world; for, by that time England will see that Germany, guarded 
by the Sea, the Channel and her own gun-lined Belgian coasts on the W^est; by her 
ally, Austria, and the Carpathians on the East; by Heligoland, the Kiel Canal, the 
Poland Marshes,--and Von Hindenberg on the North; and by her well-tested 
girder of steel on the South, can't be budged and is bound to outlast; and, after a 
big bunch of stalling and protesting that the war shall be fought at least four 
years longer, and Parliament voting four or five billions more, etc., and a lot of 
precious pantomimes like the Schiff-Eliot farce, will accept with great pretense 
of reluctance President Wilsons intermediary terms previously prepared in most 
explicit language by Germany herself. 



Now, all the foregoing, except a few up-to-dating inserts, was written nearly 
three months ago. I am rather proud of it. I didn't make so very many mistakes. 
I certainly came as close to it as my fellow highland water strategists, Bullard and 
Simonds. Optimistic as I am, I don't believe I can ever get so obsessed as they 
are. I actually believe if Germany should capture Moscow Simonds would say: 



246 WHY GERMANY IS BOUND TO WIN. 

*'It was quite a feat, but has no final military significance. Germany is doomed to 
ultimate defeat. St. Petersburg would have to fall, as well as Paris and London 
before it could be deemed significant." And when they fell he would contend: 
''Germany's achievement while unquestionably highly creditable can amount to 
nothing until she subdues the Caucasus, Siberia and India." 

But I must pay a parting tribute to Br'er Simonds. Optimistically Anti-Ger- 
man as he invariably is, he shells down the facts all right. His only trouble is 
he has one great big presumed fact always in his mind, the grotesque assumption 
that the disconnected Piebalds can outlast compact Germany, and this assumption 
makes him always draw the wrong vital conclusion. He states it so well I must 
quote this from him in March American Review of Reviews: 

"While Russia had met with complete failure in the East, while Germany had multiplied 
armies on the whole front from the Baltic to the Pruth, and won notable triumphs, she had 
displayed no weakness on the W^est. Not only had she beaten down all that was left of the 
much-heralded Fiench offensive in Alsace, retained the ground won along the Aisne before 
Soissons and about Rheims, and held off the British attack upon La Basse, but eastward of 
Rheims, about Souain, she had, on the confession of French official statements, overwhelmed a 
French detachment and made good her triumph. 

"In a word, the deadlock in the West was unbroken in February and nowhere was there 
the slightest indication that the Allies were now making progress, even by inches, toward the 
liberation of French soil. 

"In numbers it was stated by many, whofe views deserve credence, that the Germans had 
now less than 1,000,000 on the western front, were outnumbered at least two to one; yet such 
was the use they made of captured railways that their numbers remained wholly adequate 
for their task. 

/'In February, too, military observers commented freely upon the growing difficulty of the 
-Allied task. There was no real belief that Germany could again sweep south, no notion that 
-her successes could be more than local; what was in the minds of military critics was the fact 
that there had been allowed to Germany so many months to fortify her lines behind her front 
that months, and even several years, might pass before there could be any real hope that Lille, 
St. Quentin, Maubeuge would be freed from the invader by military operation. 

"What was in the minds of all observers was the prospect that the defeat of Germany, if 
it were to be achieved in advance of the slow and terrible attrition of years of conflict, must 
come from the use of naval power and not by any spectacular or immediate military opera- 
tion. In September the Fi-ench and English had attempted to turn the Germans out of France 
by a flank move to Belgium. This had failed. In December and January a second effort by a 
general offensive from Switzerland to the sea had failed, had resulted in a loss of territory, 
insignificant but humiliating, in a loss of life all official reports concealed." 

**•»*•••• 

My mistake in predicting Italy's and Japan's entrance into the conflict can be 
charitably overlooked, I believe; for, Italy probably would have been in the fur- 
nace right now if that earthquake had not jarred her back. That she will yet 
come, if she don't get just too everlastingly scared of the prowess of the Germans, 

1 believe is possible from the statements of many of her publicists. 

As to Japan, my prognostication may yet come true. She has sent a big Red 
Cross corps to France, and that would seem to spell something. In fact, she may 
have men right now "in spots" in France and may also have them helping Russia 
in the Caucasus. If she hasn't it is simply because the boys haven't "coughed up 
the price" yet. It may be that she is waiting until her "take over" of China, which 
is now in process, is complete. 

My biggest mistake was in estimating the probable German loss at 1 as against 

2 for the Piebalds. It should be 1 against about 3^2 or 4. Of course, I knew 
the Germans would be careful. They conserve mere inanimate materials better 
than any other people on earth; so, surely they would conserve men even more 
carefully. And they have done it. They will "Charge hell w4th a tooth-pick" 
when it is necessary, just as they did the Russians on the second great Russian 
offensive. 

But the Germans only lose their men when absolutely necessary. They make 
almost mathematical calculation of what it is worth in men to accomplish each 
particular object, and act accordingly. I knew that the reports of their enormous 
losses in France were bound to be tremendously exaggerated; else none of them 
could be left there. So, it seemed strange, even in the midst of JofFre's repeated 
assaults in which he virtually reported: "Have gained 1 inch in the Vosges, IV2 



WHY GERMANY IS BOUND TO WIN. 



247 



inches in the Woevre and 2 inches in the Argonne," to get the news that: "The 
Germans have gained six miles at Soissons." 

Conundrum — If a frog half way down a bottomless well climbs up five feet 
every day and falls back ten feet every night: how long will it take him to climb 

out? 

Answer Just exactly half as long as it will take Joffre to drive the Germans 

out of France. 




Jeoffre. — "We gain a little each day." 
From a Spanish paper. 

The truth of all of that business in France is leaking out. The truth is, France 
has probably lost the flower of her soldiery and England as many as one-half of 
her original expeditionary troops in France. 

The complete "give away" can be read between the lines in the following 
from the March number of the extremely Anti-German World's Work: 

"The trenches in which most of his (the Frenchman's) fighting had been done for tlie last 
three months were merely ditches dug down deep enough for him to stand up in and fire. But 
he soon noticed that those of the Germans were built much cleaner than his, very straight on 
the edges, very narrow, and with overhead cover. In some cases this cover was made of rail- 
road iron, at other times of reinforced concrete. Standing in these fissures the Germans used 
loop-holes through which to point their rifles, and as all these loopholes were made of steel 
and of the same dimensions he came to the conclusion that they had all been made beforehand 
in Germany and lugged across Belgivmi into France. 

"At first when heavy explosive projectiles landed in his trench he thought that they were 
merely high-power shells from the hostile field artillery. But soon he saw that many of these 
projectiles were fired from the German trenches less than 200 yards awaj-. Their accuracy was 
inconvenient, especially as he had nothing with which to reply to them. And while the Ger- 
mans proceeded with' these careful approach shots, lofted into his trenches, widening them and 
depopulating them, he reflected that this material must also have been made ahead of time 
for this particular purpose. Away back out of the distance the enemy also used shell from 
their field-guns, shell which hit his trenches squarely, as he knew his own gunners to the 
rear must be landing on the enemy. In these months of his mole-like life he grew to be un- 
afraid of shrapnel, because a few inches of earth would keep the bullets off him. But the shell 
came right on through. Before the war began he believed that the most effective artillery 
projectile was shrapnel and that the main job of the artillery was to cover the entire area 
where the enemy was located with a blanket of lead shrapnel bullets, and then an infantry 
charge would do the rest. But now, unshaven and muddy and unafraid of other things, shell- 
fire was all he feared. 

"Two hundred yards away, trench edges bristled with machine guns at every point. He 
wondered why his own side had so few. 

"In December the cold, wet rains had started and his trenches filled up with water or, when 
they were well drained, became running brooks. Often he had to bail them out with anything 
that he could get hold of, and on top of the fighting and watching this was a tiresome and 
worrying job. There was no such thing as keeping his feet and body dry. When they cap- 



248 WHY GEPxMANY IS BOUND TO WIN. 

tured a German trench they found that the enemy had hand-pumps, to bail their trenches 
with, and that they had dug their trenches so that they were automatically drained. He 
didn't grumble; he just wondered why it was that the other side seemed to have so many little 
advantages. 

"Jacques Bonhomme's (nickname for France) officers realized these and many other 
disadvantages under which he and his comrades labored. They had studied just as hard on 
the problems of this anticipated war, they had spent as much money as the Germans and 
even more time in perfecting their machine. But the class of fighting which this war was to 
bring on had to a great extent escaped their notice. 

"French officers had not so carefully as the Germans studied the causes and effects of 
the different methods of field operations as demonstrated by the great Russo-Japanese War 
ten years ago. Rather had they founded their military judgments on the comparatively small 
affair in the Balkans of two years ago, in which they were convinced that French artillery 
used by the allied Balkan States had proven a great superiority over German Krupp-made ord- 
nance used by the Turks. Their military attaches had apparently failed to report — or at all 
events the French military authorities had failed to realize — ^that what little difference may 
have existed in the ordinance of the two sides in the Balkan conflict weighed only lightly in 
the scale of defeat with other causes." 

Cosy in the trenches. 




iVicCutcheon in "Chicago Tribune. 

The truth of the business is the Germans have all Winter been playing on 
the French and English like a flute and fairly romping on the Russians, bagging 
just about 4 of them to 1. 

The exaggerations from Russia anent the German losses are probably even 
greater. For instance, only a few weeks ago, just before Hindenberg for the third 
time bagged a big army of them in East Prussia, the dispatches from Petrograd 
for several days thrilled with the terrific losses of the Germans on their new of- 
fensive. They were piled 10 deep all over the enormous battlefield. Alas, they 
were not even making an offensive movement. It was simply a feint to cover 



WHY GERMANY IS BOUND TO WIN. 

Hindenberg's tremendous flank movement into East Prussia, 
haps lost 10,000 and the Russians at least 150,000. 



249 
The Germans per- 




German Guard. — "If he keeps growng I shall starve to death!' 
Carter in N. Y. "Evening Sun." 



The truth is, the Russian Bear was broken down in the loins from Hinden- 
berg's second big whack at him. This last one broke his back as well. No doubt, 
his piteous bawling is what compelled England to go against the Dardenelles, her 
object being to cajole Russia into keeping up the fight by the gift of Constanti- 
nople, and also to open the waters up so she can get her wheat to market and 
thus get some badly needed ready money. 

I didn't miss it when I said the Turks would probably make it interesting. 
They have more than done it: both against Russia in the Caucasus and England 
up to the very banks of the Suez Canal. 

So, as the last form goes to press we have Germany getting her second wind 
in good shape. All of her fields in cultivation; waging the war exclusively on her 
enemies' soil; growing more expert all the time in the practice of victorious war- 
fare; whipping 2-3 of the world with Uncle Sam thrown in to the extent of 4-5 of 
his military capacity, viz: the sale of munitions against Germany (the only neu- 
tral country that permits it by the way) ; and doing it all with ease; with France 
ham-strung, Russia's back broke, and England up in the air, afraid to go to sleep 
at night or to risk a boat on the waves which she has claimed to be Empress of 
for hundreds of years. 

I will stick to my prediction that Christmas, 1915, will be the end and the 
cartoon following will show what that end will be. 



250 



WHY GERMANY IS BOUND TO WIN. 

THE TUG OF WAR. 




From Stockholm "Appell." 

And the next step will be that suggested by this last cartoon, which is self- 
explanatory : 




'So mote it be!! 



*— 



n 



4 



\ 



r 



tm 



i 



